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STUDIES 



Epistles op John; 



OR, 



THE MANIFESTED LIFE. 



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<y by 

A'. R. COCKE, D. D., 

Author of "Studies in Ephesians," Etc., 

PASTOR AT WAYNESBORO, VA. ; PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE VALLEY 
SEMINARY. 



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RICHMOND, VA.: 

The Presbyterian Committee of Publication 

1895. 



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Copyrighted by 

JAMES K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication, 

1895. 



Printed ex 
Whtttet & Sheppeeson, 

ElCHMOND, VA. 



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PREFACE. 



THE author would never have ventured to 
have placed any of his "Studies" in the 
hands of the public, but for the fact that several 
distinguished theologians and biblical scholars, 
after examining the manuscript on the Ephe- 
sians, urged its publication. The Studies in 
Ephesians met with a cordial reception. This 
fact induces him to believe that these lectures 
on the Epistles of John may cheer the hearts 
of some of God's "little children." These Epis- 
tles of love constitute a manual of the Christian 
life, and should be mastered in every line and 
word by every member of God's family. If this 
little book contributes in the least to this blessed 
end, the author's heart will be filled with joy. 

These lectures or studies were delivered to 
the Wednesday evening congregations in my 
own dear church at Waynesboro. They seemed, 
as indicated by the words of commendation com- 
ing from my own people, to have been used of 



4 Peeface. 

God as a means of enlightenment and comfort. 
After careful revision and some enlargement, 
they are sent forth in the present form with the 
earnest hope and prayer that the Lord may 
abundantly use them for his glory. No critic 
can more strongly state the weakness of these 
efforts than it is felt by the author; yet he is 
well aware that even feeble efforts, when multi- 
plied by the almighty grace of God, become a 
mighty influence for Christ. 

The author has attempted to condense into 
these lectures his study of the original in the 
light of all the commentaries within his reach. 
Among the many works consulted, Neander 
stands easily the prince. "The treasures of 
genius and learning which enrich his more 
scientific works, here seem vivified by a new 
element, and melt under the fervor of his inner 
spiritual life into a glowing stream of eloquent 
practical instruction." He seemed to possess 
an "Ithuriel touch" by which to reveal the 
heart of God beneath these sweet and musical 
sentences from the pen of John. These Epistles 
of the Apostle are intuitional statements of the 
Christian life, and in order to their vivid inter- 
pretation require a clear intuitional Christian 



Preface. 5 

consciousness in the expositor. This Neander 
possessed in an eminent degree. 

Our grand Calvinistic theology speaks in every 
line of these Epistles. Hence these studies have 
deepened my conviction of the philosophic cor- 
rectness and scrip turalness of the Westminster 
symbols. 

To the reader of this little book the author 
would say : Let the words of these Epistles lin- 
ger ceaselessly in your mind and heart until 
their light shall at last usher in that morning 
without clouds — the morning when "we shall 
be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 

A. K. Cocke. 

Waynesboro, Va. , December 7, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 



Pagk. 

I. Fellowship, 9 

II. Tests of Fellowship, 28 

III. Degrees in Life and Fellowship, 42 

IV. Character of the Life in God's Children, . . 64 
V. Confidence and the Holy Spirit, 86 

VI. "Let Us Love One Another," 101 

VII. The Testimony Concerning Eternal Life, . . 120 

VIII. The Second Epistle of John, 140 

IX. The Third Epistle of John, 151 



STUDIES 



THE EPISTLES OF JOHN 



$elloxr>sfyt}x 

A STUDY IN 1 JOHN I. 1-10, AND II. 1, 2. 

"And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with 
his Son Jesus Christ." — 1 John i. 3. 

JOHN, "the embosomed" disciple, rises at 
once above time to the eternal. In his Gos- 
pel he does not commence with the historic 
preparation, the prophetic advent of the bap- 
tizer, nor even the beginning of the earthly 
life of Christ ; but above manifestation in time, 
he rises to the dwelling of the divine Original. 
So, too, at the beginning of the epistle, the full- 
ness of life in the divine essence, and its eter- 
nal source in the invisible God himself, are 
presented. 

Even when there is a manifestation, when 
Christ walks the earth, there is the revelation 



10 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

in humanity of the life of him who is exalted 
above all forms of time, who had no beginning 
in time, who was antecedent to all creation, 
and from whom all creative energy sprung, the 
eternal image of the unknown divine existence. 
Christ must not be viewed as a being start- 
ing a career in time, however glorious that his- 
toric career may be, even though it lifts him 
at last on triumphant wings of universal adora- 
tion to the eternal throne, but as divine in 
essence ' and in person, issuing from the heart 
of God — his infinite image and perfect expres- 
sion coming forth into the world as the eternal 
life of God among men. The life of Christ on 
earth is a part only, a chapter, in the unending 
existence which stretches from the dawn of the 
eternity of the past to the sunset of the eternity 
of the future. 

Eternal life, God's eternal life, is manifested 
in Jesus, and then that life which was with the 
Father, which "was God," and which is in the 
Son, becomes the source of life for the world. 
Believers becoming the children of God by the 
Spirit of adoption enjoy the communion of the 
Father. Indeed, they have fellowship with the 
Father and the Son. 

John not so much touches upon Christ's 
work for us, though at times he does that, as 
he dwells upon Christ's life in us. Christ in- 
troduced a new life into the world, one which 



Fellowship. 11 

exhibits itself in obedience, in holiness, purity, 
grace, tenderness, compassion, and love; that 
life is in the heart of all God's children, and 
manifests itself in the same exquisite forms. 
That life having come from the bosom of God, 
ever tends to the same resting-place, and re- 
sults in fellowship with the Father and the Son. 

I. This blessed, fellowship has its foun- 
dation in a manifested life. John begins by 
resting his epistle of love and fellowship, not 
upon abstract ideas, not upon theories, nor up- 
on any philosophy, but upon a fact — the cen- 
tral fact in human history, in the history of the 
earth, perhaps in the history of the universe. 

Chap. i. 1: " That which was from the begin- 
ning, which we have heard, which we have seen 
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and 
our hands have handled, of the Word of life" 

How indeterminate John's form of expres- 
sion: " That which was from the beginning." 
"Why "that which" instead of a personal de- 
signation of him who was in eternity and came 
forth into time ? Whatsoever we may think of 
eternity, he was personal in his temporal mani- 
festation, permitting himself to be heard, seen, 
and handled. Again, in the third verse the 
same form is found : " That which we have 
seen and heard declare we unto you." " That 
which" is perhaps best expressed by "that be- 
ing who." The apostle is speaking of the es- 



12. Studies in the Epistles op John. 

seiitial life of that eternal being, rather than of 
any personal relations or attributes. 

This life was "from the beginning." At 
once one sees the distinction between this ex- 
pression and "in the beginning" of the Gospel. 
"In the beginning" was the eternal dwelling- 
place of the Lord's life; when the instant of 
manifestation came, the beginning became the 
point of departure from which God moved 
down to the earth. The life must begin by 
coming down to us ; it must descend into that 
state in which we are. 

How the words grow in meaning ! They seem 
to bring the life nearer and nearer to us. Notice 
the four verbs, "Which we have heard, which 
we have seen with our eyes, which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled, of 
the Word of life." Behold the life drawing 
nearer to us. "Heard" is the remote distance ; 
we hear frequently when we cannot see. 
"Seen" represents a place nearer and in sight; 
yea, and the sweet thought may not rest until 
it has noted this precious fact, that life was 
seen "with our own eyes." The thought con- 
tinues to deepen. There is a great difference 
between "seeing with our eyes" and "looked 
upon." The word translated "looked upon" 
means literally "gazed upon," suggesting rapt 
contemplation; once fix your eyes upon him 
they cannot be turned away, for fadeless glories 



Fellowship. 13. 

rise in swift succession, and with golden chains 
bind the beholder to the feet of God. In the 
face of the manifested life ever shine the un- 
veiled splendors of the infinite God. "Our 
hands have handled," shows that the life did 
not when coming down to us remain at a 
distance to be gazed upon, but came into touch 
with us. He himself commanded the disciples, 
"Handle me and see," and thus made sacred 
and revered what else might have been made 
coarse. Blessed touch! Through its contact 
life streamed down into the heart of the world 
until that moment so dead and cold. 

All these phrases refer to the "Word of life." 
The subject is indicated by the preposition^>eW, 
about or concerning the Word of life. 

"The Word" is not the revelation nor the 
gospel, but the great revealer of God's nature 
and purposes. "The Word of life" may be 
correctly expressed in our language " the Word 
who is the life." He is essentially that life 
which eternally flowed through the heart of 
God. In essence he is one with the Father. 
"In him was life"; he was its fountain, origi- 
nal, independent, and inexhaustible. 

Thus the apostle clearly sets forth the divin- 
ity and eternity of the life which came into the 
world. 

The life was manifested in the flesh. Em- 
phatic apostolic testimony is given to this fact. 



14 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Chap. i. 2: "The life was manifested, and 
we have seen it, and bear witness, and announce 
to you that eternal life which was with the 
Father^ 

The eternal life which was with the Father 
was manifested to ns apostles. There can be 
no doubt; he was no phantom; "the life was 
manifested"; we "have seen it, and bear wit- 
ness." We "show unto you" that very eternal 
life which was with the Father; the very same, 
also, which was manifested unto us. 

There was an adequate personal revelation 
of God the Father. The only adequate expres- 
sion of the Father's life and thought was Christ 
himself ; yea, Christ down .in the world, a man 
like other men, the Word made flesh, and dis- 
playing what divine life is under all possible 
circumstances. He was a babe, a child, a boy, 
a youth, a man. He was subject to his par- 
ents, grew to manhood, entered upon his pub- 
he ministry, dealing with Satan and all his 
wiles, with man and all his pains and sorrows, 
with his enemies and all their malignity and 
cruelty, showing always what God is, and what 
man ought to be with God dwelling in his heart. 

We want life, eternal life. We may see some 
beautiful traits of the divine life in God's saints ; 
but they all mar, somehow or other, the perfect 
outshining of the new life communicated to 
God's children. 



Fellowship. 15 

In Christ alone, the all-eclipsing glory of 
God, the eternal life shines forth. 

How blessed, too, to know that, as a matter of 
fact, the apostle saw that glory, and could speak 
so emphatically: 

Chap. i. 3 : ■' These things which we have seen 
and heard we announce unto you, that ye also 
may have fellowship with us ; and truly our 
fellowship is toith the father, and with his Son 
Jesus Christ." 

The apostle nnveils his heart, and indicates 
his design in writing and announcing the mani- 
festation of the eternal life: it is, "that ye also 
may have fellowship with us." * By "fellowship 
with us" he means fellowship with those who 
were eye-witnesses of the eternal life which had 
appeared. They had direct fellowship with the 
divine life -fountain. Fellowship with Christ is 
the foundation of all Christian fellowship, and 
springs out of the original fact that certain 
men were eye-witnesses of his glory. Fellow- 
ship is an old Saxon word, and communion is 
a Latin word meaning the same thing. Fellow- 
ship is partnership. When John tells us that 
"the life was manifested," and shows unto us 
"that eternal life which was with the Father,"' 
then, indeed, we also have fellowship with him. 

* xocvwvidv is enlarged by p.eO ij/jLcov, the eye-witnesses; 
not by " with God and Christ," as Bengel and Russmeyer 
suggest. 



16 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

"We know, and are interested in, the same facts 
in regard to "the Word of life." What blessed 
fellowship are all who read this sweet epistle 
introduced into — fellowship with the seraphic 
and angelic John! 

But the fellowship does not stop with the 
apostle. He says : " Truly our fellowship is 
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus 
Christ." The circle of communion goes up to 
heaven itself, and embraces the eternal life in 
God and Christ. Through the apostle's testi- 
mony we have fellowship with the Father. We 
see Jesus, who came out of his heart, as he saw 
him: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased."* Our hearts may rest upon 
Jesus with the same infinite delight and satis- 
faction. We can enter into the Father's feel- 
ing towards the Son. 

We also have fellowship " with his Son Jesus 
Christ." Jesus said, "I ascend unto my 
Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and 
your God."t Here is communion. We enter 
into the feelings and the affections which fill, 
the heart of Jesus Christ, as he looks upon his 
Father. 

Since this fellowship is grounded in that eter- 
nal divine life in which alone joy can be found, 
John speaks of it being the object of this 
epistle of love to promote that joy : 

♦Matthew iii. 17. f John xx. 17. 



Fellowship. 17 

Chap. i. 4: " A?id these things* write we 
unto you, that your joy may be full" 

He made known unto them the facts of the 
manifestation of the divine and eternal life in 
order that they might be brought into fellow- 
ship with him, and thus have their mutual joy 
fulfilled. This desire to increase his own in 
increasing others joys seemed the inspiration 
of the Saviour's life. "These things have I 
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in 
you ; that your joy might be full."t " These 
things I speak in the world that they might 
have my joy fulfilled in themselves."'! John 
was following a very beautiful and heavenly 
example in introducing all to whom he wrote 
into the fellowship of the Father and his Son 
Jesus Christ, that they might ever drink at the 
well-springs of joy breaking out from the in- 
finite life of God. 

II. The character of the life with which 

WE HOLD FELLOWSHIP IS CLEARLY REVEALED. In 

addition to the manifestation, there is a mes- 
sage. The manifestation, with its results, is 
stated in the first four verses. The message is 
stated in the fifth verse. 

♦"These things" refers not merely to the preceding 
(Russmeyer) nor to the following verses (Socinus), but to 
the entire letter (Liicke and De Wette). 

f John xv. 11. 

X John xvii. 13. 



18 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

A certain demand is made upon us by virtue 
of the divine nature. Love may be the spring 
of all, but all is in accordance with truth. We 
are to judge self and all the pretensions of life 
by the nature of that eternal being. 

Chap. i. 5 : " This then is the message that 
we have heard of him, and declare* unto you, 
that God is lights and in him is no darkness 
at alir 

It is no longer the Father. In the previous 
verses the Father is named because his grace 
abounds through the Son; now we must deal 
with God, dealing with his will and holiness, 
into the presence of which we are brought by 
his grace. It is no longer a law, but a message, 
revealing God's nature, the spring of all law, 
making known its character to loving children. 

God is represented under an image doubtless 
heard from the Saviour's lips : " God, is light." 
His nature is light ; from him all darkness is 
excluded. Light is often used for the divine ; 
truth, holiness, and blessing are designated by 
this beautiful image. God is absolute holiness, 
and any shade of sin is unknown to his nature. 
The apostle condenses in this diamond cup, 
" God is light "% the cream of what the eternal 
Son in our nature uttered concerning the nature 

*Rev. Ver., " Announce unto you.'' 
t Not ' ' a light " as Luther translates. 
% Demarest, in loco. 



Fellowship. 19 

of God.* The nature of God is holiness ; all 
that is unholy is alien to him. The ground of 
any fellowship is in the light. Where is the 
child of God to walk ? We are to " walk in the 
light as he is in the light." God is both love 
and light ; yet we should never forget that God 
puts light first. From the view of the divine 
nature and consequent place of the Christian, 
the cjndition of being in fellowship with God 
is perfectly clear, as also the evidence that no 
fellowship exists. 

Chap. i. 6, 7 : "If we say that we have fel- 
lowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, 
and do not the truth ; out if we walk in the 
light as he is in the light, we have fellowship 
one with another." 

All spiritual fellowship presupposes an affin-^ 
ity of nature, and no fellowship with God can 
exist without a life conformed to God. 

Since God is light, fellowship with him must 
be manifested through a life full of light. Here 
are tests whether the fellowship claimed is true 
or false. When we claim fellowship and do 
not walk in the light, we are "in darkness," 
"we lie," and " we do not the truth." Our very 
claim ceases to be speech, and becomes false- 
hood in action ; "we do not the truth." 

* Weiss is wrong in supposing ^eu? is "God is light" in. 
the sense that he has become visible ; 00)$ indicates the 
purity of God's nature. 



20 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

But what a beautiful contrast is presented! 
"Walking in the light, in holiness, evidences 
that we are acquainted with the manifested life, 
and hence " have fellowship one with another."* 
Fellowship with God and Christ, and fellowship 
of God's children with one another, as one and 
the same thing, rests upon the same condition, 
" walking in the light." Such a life is centered 
in the truth that God is light, and moves upon 
its orbit bathed in that light. 

III. The apostle eeveals the mannee in 

WHICH THIS FELLOWSHIP IS SUSTAINED, SEEING 
THAT WE AEE SINNEES. 

Even while walking in the light the dark and 
sinful still mingle their hateful influence in the 
believer's life. Some of the roots and effects 
of sin remain. Hence there is continuous con- 
flict between the light and the darkness. The 
light has come in, and the whole life is grad- 
ually transformed into light. Sinfulness still 
cleaves to the believer, and makes necessary 
continuous application of the great sin-remedy 
in some form. Hence the apostle points to 
"the blood of Jesus Christ his Son," which 
"cleanseth from all sin."t Of course, the 

♦Here is fellowship of Christians with one another 
(Grotius, Bengel, Semler, Liicke, and Neander); not of 
God with men (Calvin). 

f Probably refers not simply to guilt (Lange, Erdmann, 
and Weiss) or pollution (Liicke and Erbrard), but to both 
(Bengel and De Wette). 



Fellowship. 21 

cleansing through the blood of Jesus is not to 
be understood of the literal blood, but only a 
spiritual cleansing by spiritual means. The 
blood of Jesus is, in a word, the sacrifice made 
by Jesus in its entirety, sweeping away, by 
virtue of its infinite efficacy, the sin of human- 
ity. Here the important point is, how to sus- 
tain fellowship between a sinner and the holy 
one. This blood is so effective that the sin yet 
remaining no longer forms a hindrance to fel- 
lowship with God, being viewed as done away, 
and, moreover, the still operating sinful element 
is more and more vanishing away as the days 
pass by. The light grows more and more unto 
the dawning of perfect day. The beautiful rays 
of dawn paint as with the finger of God the 
glories of the day upon the soul, and give pro- 
mise of heavenly splendors throughout eter- 
nity. 

Though walking in the light, sin ever cleaves 
to God's children, and they are in constant need 
of a redeemer. While John's crowning thought 
is the life of Christ hi us, from the very neces- 
sities of the case he cannot get away from the 
life of Christ for us. 

But there is another form of delusion, the de- 
nial of sin. Some would suppose that we can 
trust to Christ's work for us and ignore Christ's 
life in us. Believers may be tempted to say, 
as Christ died for us "we have no sin." The 



22 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

apostle touches with an Ithuriel's spear this er- 
ror of Satan: "If we say that we have no sin,* 
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in 
us." (Chap. i. 8.) 

We may not suppose ourselves already free 
from sin, and should have upon our hearts pain- 
ful consciousness of its indwelling presence 
until that blessed moment shall come when 
every root of sin is taken out of the soul. 

The true demand upon us is not to deny but 
to confess our sins. Confessing them, we find 
ever present redemption and purification. 

Chap. i. 9 : " If we confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

"If we confess " is the essential condition. 
Conscious of sin, we should cry, "Lord, that 
sin is so hateful to thee and to me." And next 
add, from the depths of the soul, "Lord, for- 
give me." From the infallible word comes his 
heavenly voice, so musical to the hearts of his 
children: "Faithful and just to forgive you 
your sins, and to cleanse you from all unright- 
eousness." The condition is confession. 

The ground of our confidence, in view of the 
remaining sin, is the faithfulness and righteous- 
ness of God. Faithful — he will fulfil every pro- 
mise. His acts will be in harmony with his 

* Liicke, Sander, and Huther rightly reject Grotius's view 
that sins before conversion are referred to. 



Fellowship. 23 

words, and with his own nature. He will per- 
form his word, and satisfy the life implanted 
through his Spirit. Eighteous — he will do all 
that is due to Christ in view of the covenant of 
redemption. That covenant calls for forgive- 
ness of sins and cleansing from all unrighteous- 
ness. These two blessings are secure to all for 
whom Christ died. 

The believer does not refuse to own that he 
has sinned. This is grossly opposed to the 
truth, and with tremendous emphasis does God's 
word condemn such a position. 

Chap. i. 10: "If we say that we have not 
sinned* we make him a liar, and the word\ is 
not in us." 

God's word represents us as being sinners, 
seeks to awaken a consciousness of sin, and at 
infinite cost sends Jesus to save his people from 
their sins. Hence any denial of this doctrine 
gives the lie to God, and moreover reveals that 
his word cannot be the spring of our inner life. 
Christ is not in us. 

Our failure is a fact. We sin, and its roots 
are yet deep in our being, but for all that the 
apostle calls us, "My little children." How 
sweet it sounds after the confession of sin. God 
does not cease to love us even when we grieve 

* Perfect tense. 

f Logos is ' ' the revelation of God, especially the gospel 
of Jesus Christ." — Lucke. 



24 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

his heart. John persists in calling believers by 
this tender term, "little children." God is our 
Father; and be we iofants, strong men, or tot- 
tering gray -haired saints, we are still, despite 
our sins, his "little children." In this phrase 
God's heart throbs for us. 

Read the whole sentence. 

Chap. ii. 1 : "My little children, these things 
write I unto you, that ye sin not."" 

"These things"" look back to the fact that 
God is light, and that only by walking in the 
light can we be sure of divine fellowship with 
the life of God. All he has said about sin cleav- 
ing to us, and about progressive purification 
from it, is to excite them to undying hostility to 
sin. So that the whole of the first chapter con- 
cerning the manifestation of the divine life, the 
character of the divine nature, and the means 
of maintaining fellowship with that holy life in 
the Father and Christ, finds its appropriate 
climax in the exhortation "that ye sin not." 

The consolation in view of remaining sin 
goes very deep. Suppose we do sin despite all 
our honest fighting against it; then are we to 
be at once unsettled about our salvation ? Are 
we to yield to despair? Nay; rather we are 
pointed to the living Christ as another safe- 
guard against overwhelming despair. 

* See Liicke, De Wette, and Braune; we reject Bengel's 
view that what follows is referred to. 



Fellowship. 25 

Chap. ii. 1, 2 : "And if any man sin, we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesris Christ the 
righteous ; and he is the propitiation for our 
sins / and not for ours only, out also for the 
sins of the whole world." 

Cheer up, you have a mediator with the 
Father in heaven. This mediator or advocate 
is none less than Jesus Christ the righteous, 
the Holy One. Do not brood over sin, do not 
be driven to despair, but turn in confidence to 
your eternal advocate, Jesus Christ, the Right- 
eous One. 

We have not only the blood of Christ, but 
the living Christ himself. He is our advocate, 
not with God, but with the Father. All is set- 
tled between the soul and God ; often, however, 
the believer grieves his Father by becoming an 
erring child. 

"Advocate"* is a very precious word. The 
word translated "advocate" here and "com- 
forter" in the Gospel is the same. Christ says, 
"I will send you another Comforter" (advo- 
cate). That utterance implies that he himself 
is also an advocate. He is such, undertaking 
to conduct our cause to a happy issue. He 
pleads our cause, not by denying anything we 
have done. He takes the sinner's place and 
stands in our shoes. He took the sin and re- 
ceived into his heart its punishment. He fills 
* Used in its forensic sense — advocatus, patronus causm. 



26 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

the chasm which yawns between the sinner and 
God — the Christian and his Father. He was 
righteous, and hence was fitted to take our 
cause. Upon him God can look with infinite 
approval. In his advocacy all his perfect work 
and suffering, and his present glory and exalta- 
tion, is implied. His holiness stands forever 
a perfect offset to all that is sinful in us. 
One with him, they are presented before the 
Father as perfect in him, and as sure one day 
to be wholly cleansed from sin. They shall be 
like him. They shall be holy, even as he is holy. 

The believer then fixes his eye upon the liv- 
ing Christ, who, after a perfect life, died for 
him, and by a victorious resurrection was ap- 
proved as God's Holy One, over whom God's 
enemies had and can have no power. He for- 
ever lives with the Father in a divine human 
personality, and in person pleads for his re- 
deemed ones: "And I will pray the Father, 
and he shall give you another Comforter, that 
he may abide with you forever."* What com- 
fort to the sinning child of God, when seeing 
how his sins grieve his Father. 

This advocate "is the propitiation t for our 
sins." He is our advocate, and as such in his 
person carries all our redemption up before his 

* John xiv. 16. 

f Huther says: "Christ is called the IX aajio 9 inasmuch 
as he has expiated by his ac/xa the guilt of sin." 



Fellowship. 27 

Father. He was our propitiation, our mercy- 
seat here, and is the same yesterday, to- 
day, and forever in this all-important capacity. 
"Wherever we are in the sinful world our pro- 
pitiation is right under the Father's eye, and 
we can come to the Father in sweetest fellow- 
ship. Hence fellowship is maintained, and 
once in our Father's bosom we can never lose 
the glory that awaits us, for Christ's blood and 
Christ glorified is between us and all possible 
failure. Despite our sins we are ever lifted to 
bathe in the light of his countenance, and feel 
the pulse of our eternal Father's heart. 

Christ's propitiation is of infinite value. It 
is adequate not for our sins only, but also for 
the whole world. Jesus was the expiatory 
sacrifice for those who lived in John's time, 
and also for the whole world of God's people 
in all ages. The Father sent the Son "to be 
the Saviour of the world." So infinite is the 
value of Christ's sacrifice, that despite the 
clinging rags of sin we are lifted to continuous 
fellowship with one another, and "with the 
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 

In the first verse of the first chapter we see 
Jesus coming forth out of the bosom of God to 
unfold to the world God's life ; but in the con- 
cluding verses we find the redeemed child of 
God, with his sins forgiven him, clasped by 
the pure and loving hands of the Father, and 
forever folded in his holy bosom. 



II. 
{Tests of $ellovosfyp. 

A STUDY IN 1 JOHN II. 3-11. 

"Hereby we do know that we know him." — 1 John 
ii. 3. 

THE Word of life appeared in the world in- 
carnate, and manifested the life of God. 
He brought into intimate relationship with him- 
self the apostles, who were eye-witnesses of his 
glory. This relationship amounted to fellow- 
ship "with the Father, and with his Son Jesus 
Christ." What deathless joy to be introduced 
into such heavenly fellowship ! 

What is the life of God, its character ? From 
the beginning the message has been ringing in 
our ears : " God is light, and in him is no dark- 
ness at all." The essential condition, then, of 
this exalted fellowship is, that we "walk in the 
light, as he is in the light." Any pretence of 
fellowship with the Father, and with Jesus 
Christ, while walking " in darkness," is false. 

But sin cleaves to all God's children. How, 

then, can fellowship be maintained? To deny 

the sin would be madness : "If we say we have 

no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 

28 



Tests of Fellowship. 29 

not in us ; " nay, " we make him a liar, and his 
word is not in us." Fellowship, then, is main- 
tained only by virtue of the fact that he is 
" faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
The blood sustains us in fellowship : " The 
blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth." The loving 
Christ also appears on our behalf, after having 
made a propitiation for our sins : " we have an 
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
righteous." 

If the child of God who sins and strays from 
the right path may have this fellowship, is there 
not danger that those who live in sin will claim 
this communion ? Is not this teaching lax ? Is 
there not at least an appearance of some in- 
dulgence for sin? Is there not some license 
for an unholy walk? Nay, for the inspired pen 
carefully guards against such a conclusion in 
this profound paragraph, in which Christian 
profession is subjected to a triple test. One 
may make groundless claims, but says John, 
"And hereby do we know that we know him." 
The pupil on entering school may claim to be 
a master of algebra, and to decide the matter 
the teacher gives him a test in X Y Z ; so to all 
those claiming to be Christians the apostles 
present three tests, very searching indeed, and 
reaching to the very roots of all Christian pro- 
fession : 



30 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

I. The first test is keeping his command- 
ments. 

Chap. ii. 3: "Hereby do we know that we 
know him, if we keep his commandments." 

The apostle would warn them against the 
false confidence of a merely seeming Christian 
life, and asks them to note the characteristic 
marks of that life. "We know that we know 
him," is not mere intellectual perception, but a 
knowledge which includes both intellect and 
heart. It pertains to the understanding and 
also to the affections. It is not mere specula- 
tion, but the perception of the heart and intui- 
tion of the inner divine life. It presupposes a 
fellowship of life with the divine life, and im- 
presses its precious character upon the whole 
career. Knowledge of God* can only exist 
where there is an unction from the Holy One 
(1 John ii. 20-27) and in the soul upon which 
his holy image has been stamped. How clear, 
then, that keeping his commandments will follow. 
His commands are expressions of his nature. 
They proceed from him, and set him forth in 
the intensest meaning of his nature. His com- 
mands are particular features of his nature. 
Hence, clearly, by comparing one's life with 
the commands of Christ one may ascertain 

* wnov does not refer to Christ (Grotius, Bengel, Sender, 
Erdmann) but to God, as held by Calvin, Liicke, Braune, 
and others. 



Tests of Fellowship. 31 

whether the knowledge of "Christ which is 
claimed is true, or a mere appearance ; not, of 
course, keeping the commandments in perfec- 
tion, but the purpose, the trend and current of 
the life, is towards their observance, and desire 
to obey is dominant in the soul. The test, the 
touch-stone of all religious knowledge, is in the 
practical life. John but restates the words of 
Jesus: "If ye love me, keep my command- 
ments." (John xiv. 15.) And: "He that hath 
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is 
that loveth me." (John xiv. 21.) 

John now expresses this same truth in the 
negative form : " He that saith, I know him, 
and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, 
and the truth is not in him." (Chap. ii. 4.) 

The " saith " is tested by the " keepeth." If 
there is no "keepeth" the "saith" is a "liar," 
and "the truth is not in" such a professor. 
How strong the indictment of the false pro- 
fessor. Truth, too, in any one moulds the dis- 
position and forms the character. 

Hence the inference : " But whoso keepeth 
his word, in him verily is the love of God per- 
fected : hereby know we that we are in him." 
(Chap. ii. 5.) 

John deepens the statement, for now he re- 
fers, not merely to insolated moral precepts, 
but to the " word " — the entire word, revealed 
through Christ. One who observes this word 



32 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

in its entirety and practices it in his life loves 
God (the love of God* — i. e., our love to God, 
as in verse 15; iii. 17; v. 3), and, indeed, the 
love of God is perfected — i. e., perfectly proven ; 
by constant obedience to his word he gives 
a perfect demonstration of his love to God. 
There is here implied that there are different de- 
grees of energy in the life of holiness in the hearts 
of Christians, and that correspondent differ- 
ences in obedience to God's word will be de- 
tected. The life in the Christian is a life of 
love, and love becomes a new principle within 
him, impelling him to obey Christ's commands. 
The actual life furnishes the test of our know- 
ledge of Christ, and hence of our relation to him. 

" Hereby we know that we are in him." "In 
him," is very significant. The whole Christian 
state has its foundation in Christ. All fellow- 
ship has its roots in, and draws its life out of, 
that simple formula. Christ himself is the vital 
source of our fellowship with one another, and 
also with the Father. Obedience to the com- 
mands, to the words of Christ, is the test whether 
one is truly "in him." 

II. Then comes the second test: "To walk 

EVEN AS HE WALKED." 

Chap. ii. 6 : He that saith he abideth in him" 

* It is not the love of God to us, as thought by Russ- 
meyer, Sander, and Lange ; but our love to God, as held 
by Erdmann, Braune, Liicke, and others. 



Tests of Fellowship. 33 

i. e., in Christ, "ought himself also so to walk, 
even as he ivalked" 

It is proper to make a distinction in regard 
to our relation to the divine life, viz. : between 
our being in Christ and Christ being in us. 
Both of these statements are made in regard to 
the Christian. To be "in him," "to abide in 
him," is to be in just that position in which 
God has placed us — that of an adopted child, a 
dearly beloved son; one with Christ and God. 
"To abide" in Christ is more than simply "to 
be " in Christ. It is not simply to have entered 
into the fellowship with Christ, but with true 
heart to persevere steadfastly therein. To pro- 
fess that we abide in him implies the comple- 
mental truth that he is in us, and that he fur- 
nishes the animating principle of life. How, 
then, shall it be manifested that he abides 
in us ? * 

The life of God was manifested, was heard, 
seen, looked upon, and handled, and found to 
be full of grace and truth. He lived here in 
this world, and showed, by message and life, 
that God is light. His life was perfect, and 
were he down here he would live the same 
heavenly career. God is light, and hence he 
became the light of the world. But Christ is 
down here now in us : "That Christ may dwell 

* " The fruit of a life in Christ is a life like Christ's." — 
Andrew Murray. 

3 



34 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

in your hearts by faith." * Then we ought to 
walk here " as he also walked." There is an 
inward germinant power which must make 
itself felt in a life like his. If a man abide in 
Christ and Christ dwells within him, then must 
the heavenly forms of grace and truth which 
Christ unfolded in his life be manifested, to 
some extent at least, in his followers. The life 
of the rose unfolds itself in the fragrance and 
beauty of the queen of flowers ; the life of the 
lily in immaculate purity ; the life of Christ in 
"love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance," t which are the 
fruits of the Spirit. Christ is the great arche- 
type of redeemed humanity, and the life of each 
believer is an aspect of the image of the Son of 
God. The conformity of the life to the model 
of Christ is the test of fellowship with the 
Father. 

We reach a passage difficult to understand; 
we cannot agree with Neander and many others 
in their interpretation which throws forward 
the seventh verse, making it a part of the dis- 
cussion in regard to the test mentioned in the 
ninth verse. It is closely connected with the 
sixth verse, and very beautifully continues the 
discussion of the test there applied. 

Chap. ii. 7, 8: "Brethren, I write no new 
commandment unto you, hut an old command- 

*Eph. iii. 17. tGal. v. 22, 23. 



Tests of Fellowship. 35 

ment which ye had from the beginning. Tlie old 
commandment is the word which ye have heard 
from the beginning. Again, a new command- 
ment I write unto you, which thing is true in 
him and in you : because the darkness is past, 
and the true light now shineth."* 

What is meant by "an old commandment 
which ye had from the beginning," the apostle 
answers thus: "The old commandment is the 
word which ye have heard from the beginning." 
What is that word heard from the beginning ? 
That which was from the beginning was mani- 
fested, and brought a word, a message, namely, 
"God is light." This, then, is the old com- 
mandment. 

But, says the apostle, "A new commandment 
I write unto you." The old commandment un- 
der certain aspects becomes new. The life of 
God was manifested as light. That life was in 
Christ, and there showed itself "light" and "no 
darkness at all"; "which thing is true in him." 
"The life was the light of men" and "the light 
of the world." (John i. 4; viii. 12.) The mes- 
sage about God, that he is "light," was "true in 
him," that is, in Christ. 

But how true "in you"? "God is light," 

♦Many, as Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Neander, and 
Erdmann, refer the commandment to brotherly love ; Hu- 
ther's view is about the one presented below, referring it 
to "God is light." 



36 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

and " now are ye light in the Lord." * Not only 
was Christ light, but believers " are light in the 
Lord." The word is not only true in God's 
only begotten Son, but in us, his sons. Can it, 
indeed, be true in us ? Yes, "because the 
darkness is past, and the true light now shin- 
eth." Read correctly, how beautiful: "Because 
the darkness is passing away." t "We do not 
and cannot deny that there is darkness in the 
believer, but the day is rising; the dawn is 
growing and glowing; "the darkness is pass- 
ing away"; yea, "the true light already shin- 
eth."J The light shines in the believer ; it is 
" true in him and in you." 

How clear now becomes the test! God is 
light, Christ is light, and the same thing is true 
in all who hold fellowship with the Father and 
with his Son Jesus Christ. Each believer, 
therefore, " ought himself also so to walk, even 
as he walked." Or, to take the same truth in 
Paul's fine sentence, " Now are ye light in the 
Lord : walk as children of light." (Eph. v. 
8.)§ Paul also indicates specifically what is to 
be expected of such a lif e : "For the fruit of 
the light II is in all goodness and righteousness 
and truth." (Eph. v. 9.) 

♦Ephesians v. 8. 

1[7j(TxoTcd 7zapaysrai. tro d'tor to alrjdwov rjd-rj (paivet. 

§ See the author's Studies in Epfiesians, in loco. 

|| Read too <pu)To?. Revised Version is correct. 



Tests of Fellowship. 37 

How searching the test ! The very depth of 
the Christian nature is sounded by a plummet- 
line which was first let down into the infinite 
abysses of God and Christ. 

III. The thied test of fellowship with 
the Father is love for our brethren. 

Chap. ii. 9 : "He that saith he is in the light, 
and hateth his brother, is in darkness even un- 
til now." 

It is still profession that is being tested : " He 
that saith he is in the light." The state claimed 
is that he is "in the light." "In the light" is 
in fellowship with the Father, and with his Son 
Jesus Christ. "In darkness" is the opposite: 
it is in the world, in fellowship with the prince 
of darkness. Hatred, the opposite of love, is a 
sure sign that one is not a partaker of the di- 
vine light. The malignant spirit of the evil 
one reigns in every heart that hates. Light 
cannot coexist with darkness ; love cannot co- 
exist with hatred. Hence, the conclusion is in- 
vincible, that one who claims fellowship with 
God, and hates where he should love, where 
God the Father and Christ would love, is in 
the darkness of an unconverted state ; and, 
however long he may have made such profes- 
sions, " even until now," he knows not the truth, 
and the light of Christ has never yet risen upon 
his soul. Thus one's "saith" is touched as with 
an Ithuriel's spear, and its true character is re- 



38 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

vealed. Indeed, "the word of God is quick 
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword; piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of the soul and spirit."* There are really but 
two classes, the one that hates and the one that 
loves. These are the two roots of disposition. 
"There is no half-way house in the soul. In- 
difference to our brethren in Christ is hatred in 
germ ; contempt, the opening bud ; violent deal- 
ing, the mature evil fruit." t When self is the 
centre, and love is not the animating principle, 
then the life is not of God. 

The apostle now states this test in a positive 
form: "He that loveth his brother abideth in 
the light, and there is none occasion of stum- 
bling in him." (Chap. ii. 10.) 

The character of God is the touch-stone of 
all fellowship with him. "God is love," and 
one cannot even know God without love in the 
heart: "He that loveth not knoweth not God." 
So true is this, that "love is of God," that 
"every one that loveth is born of God." Love 
in the soul is an evidence that God's nature is 
there, as light in the heart is an evidence that 
God is there. The very essence of Christ's life 
was self-sacrificing love, and fellowship with 
him reflects a similar love ; not simply is such 
an one in the light, but he "abideth in the 

♦Hebrews iv. 12. 'r Demarest, in loco. 



Tests of Fellowship. 39 

light." The light is the continuous sphere of 
his life. 

In one who loves "there is none occasion of 
stumbling." Luther beautifully says: "He 
who is so heavenly-minded gives to another no 
cause of stumbling, no offence." There is in 
such a loving heart little to offend and cause 
to stumble, either himself or others. One who 
walks in the light of day sees clearly, and can 
avoid all that would make him fall ; and he 
who loves walks in the light as he is in the 
light, and therefore has little occasion of stum- 
bling as he goes along life's pathway.* The 
path and the goal are clear in that light, and 
each step definite. Love gives clearness of 
vision — true security of soul. Love is the se- 
cret of ability to walk in the light. 

The apostle states in detail the position of 
one who hates : 

Chip. ii. 11: "But he thathateth his brother 
is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and 
knoweth not whither he goeth, because that 
darkness hath blinded his eyes." 

John distinguishes between being "in dark- 
ness" and walking in darkness. One is the 
inner cause, the other the outer effect ; one is the 
moral state or nature, the other the moral life 

* Luther correctly says : "In him who loves his brother, 
and thus remains in the light, there is nothing which 
entices him to sin." 



40 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

and activity resulting. One in darkness can 
only walk in darkness. Not only is such, an 
one walking in darkness, but lie cannot see the 
way in which he goes. The very goal of life 
is hidden from his eyes. They are wandering 
stars moving along on an infinite orbit, "to 
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness 
forever."* How fearful the reason assigned 
for these false professors not knowing whither 
they go: "Because that darkness hath blinded 
their eyes." Sin has been the element of life 
so long that it has obscured their moral powers, 
and the course of life is no longer clear as it 
might be, but a tangled web of paths surely 
leading down to the pit of darkness. 

There are three "He that saiths" in this pas- 
sage : "He that saith I know him" (vs. 4); 
"He that saith he abideth in him" (vs. 6) ; "He 
that saith he is in the light" (vs. 9). These 
angels of jirofession are tested by laying bare 
their inner nature. Satan can make profes- 
sion, but God's ken alone detects the artifice. 
Milton makes him, in order to deceive Uriel, 
thus enter : 

"And now a stripling cherub he appears, 
Xot of the prime, yet such as in his face 
Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb 
Suitable grace diffused, so well he figured." f 

* Jude, vs. 13. f Paradise Lost, III. , 635. 



Tests of Fellowship. 41 

Having thus deceived Uriel, Satan wheeled 
his flight down to Paradise, Adam's abode, and 
supposing himself unobserved, gives way to all 
his evil emotions. Uriel chanced to see him 
while 

"Each passion dimmed his face 

Thrice changed with pale ire, envy and despair, 

Which marr'd his borrowed visage, and betrayed 

Him counterfeit — 

For heavenly minds from such distempers foul 

Are ever clear." * 

So, many an angel of profession reveals its 
true nature, a falsehood of Satan, beneath the 
omniscence of this passage of God's word. 
Thank God for his word, 

' ' For no falsehood can endure 
Touch of celestial temper, but returns 
Of force to its own likeness." t 

* Paradise Lost, ILL , 114. 
If Ibid., IV., 811. 



III. 
Degrees in £tfe anb $dlovosfy$. 

A STUDY IN 1 JOHN II. 12-28. . 
"I write unto you, little children" (rzy.-Aa). — 1 John ii. 12. 

THE existence of Christian life and fellow- 
ship may be tested: "We do know that 
we know him, if we keep his commandments." 
The testimony may even extend to the walk and 
conversation: "He that saith he abideth in 
him ought himself also so to walk, even as he 
walked." The fact that God is light is exem- 
plified both " in him " and " in you." " In you " 
" because the darkness is passing away, and the 
true light now shineth." "God is love" as 
well as "light," and hence "he that loveth his 
brother abideth in the light." Any counter 
profession must be false : "He that saith he is 
in the light, and hateth his brother, is in dark- 
ness even until now." 

The life is thus tested, and we know who are 
God's children. The apostle now proceeds to 
show us the family of God, the dear children 
m their different stages of growth. Some are 
quite young, have just begun the blessed life of 
faith. Others are somewhat more developed, 
42 



Degeees in Life and Fellowship. 43 

and have entered fully upon its conflicts ; while 
yet others have passed the period of conflict 
and have entered upon the stage of intimate 
communion with God, and of thorough know- 
ledge of Jesus Christ. 

Before, however, touching the three stages of 
Christian development and growth, we may well 
ask, What is the essential character of all believ- 
ers ? What statement may be made which will be 
true of every stage of growth, whether the ma- 
ture saint or the new-born babe just seeing the 
light of the kingdom ? The twelfth verse, as in- 
troductory to the section, gives this point. 

Chap. ii. 12 : " / write unto you, little chil- 
dren, because your sins are forgiven you for his 
name's sake''' 

God is the spiritual Father of the believer. 
All are addressed as "little children," not as in- 
dicating any stage of growth, but as indicating 
birth -relationship, which is equally true of all 
ages. "Little children" here is rexvia* the es- 
sential idea in which is birth, off spring. \ It is 
from tcxto)* to beget, and, indeed, all believers 
are "born of him." "His seed remaineth in 
him," and "he is born of God." What a 
blessed birth is that. All Christians have this 
birth-relationship in common, and hence "lit- 
tle children " in this verse comprehends the en- 
tire family. 

* See Liddell and Scott. f Anglo-Saxon lewn, from beran. 



44 Studies in the Epistles or John. 

There is another thing which is true of all 
God's children — those born of him : " Your sins 
are forgiven you for his name's sake." Of the 
entire family of God it may be truly said their 
sins are forgiven them. It is not your sins 
shall be forgiven, or may be, but are forgiven. 
All can have the blessed comfort of assurance 
of sins forgiven through the mediation of Christ. 
"For his name's sake" are their sins blotted 
out. The pardon of sin is for the sake of what 
Christ is as the Son of God and the Son of man, 
the human-divine Redeemer. 

"Born of him" and "sins are forgiven," are 
the two marks essential to all God's children, 
are common characteristics to be found upon 
every believer. 

The apostle now proceeds to classify all 
Christians by the degree of growth in the life 
of God. 

I. Those are the most mature of all who 

ARE CALLED "FATHERS." 

Chap. ii. 13 : " I write unto you, fathers, he- 
cause ye have known him that is from the be- 
ginning." 

"Him that is from the beginning" is the 
highest point in the epistle. To know "him 
that is from the beginning," who was with God 
and was God, and came to reveal the infinite 
life of God, was to have a knowledge including 
all else — the knowledge of Christ himself. The 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship 45 

"fathers" not simply trust Mm, believe in him, 
but know him. Every wave of knowledge rolled 
in from that one deep sea, Christ. Knowing 
him that was from the beginning, fchey entered 
into the infinite being of God, and beheld the 
unfolding glories of his infinite nature: "He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 
(John xiv. 9.) In him is all : "I am the way, 
the truth, and the life." (John xiv. 6.) This 
knowledge supposes higher Christian develop- 
ment, closer intimacy with the Father. Here 
knowledge is not mere intellection, but is 
grounded in life, community of life with the 
object of knowledge. 

Again he refers to the fathers, but in the 
same words: 

Chap. ii. 14: "I have written unto you, 
fathers, because ye have known him that is 
from the beginning." 

He needs no other words. The fathers have 
passed all lower words and need only that their 
minds and hearts should continue centered on 
him that is from the beginning. Christ alone 
stands forth before their eyes, and in him all 
else is found. This is the sum of all Christian 
experience, the goal, ever expanding, of all 
Christian life. All lesser things have passed 
away, and Christ alone remains as our portion. 
With Paul, all the "fathers" may say, "I know 
whom I have believed." 



46 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

II. The second grade in christian develop- 
ment IS THE " YOUNG MEN." 

Chap. ii. 13: " I write unto you, young men, 
because ye have overcome the wicked one." 

Here is the period of conflict, painful sepa- 
ration from evil. The germs of evil in the 
spiritual being are to be destroyed. Desire 
and passion strive against the higher law of the 
spirit ; natural reason calls in question the prin- 
ciples of faith. The twofold law of man's na- 
ture breaks forth into conscious and uncon- 
cealed discord. The conflict may not be 
avoided. "The wicked one" inflames and 
excites every principle of evil. Hence any con- 
quest is a conquest of the evil one, and the one 
that overcomes even the evil within himself 
overcomes "the wicked one." That conquest 
is viewed as complete, because he has tri- 
umphed once for all over all the power of evil, 
and his victory belongs to and is gradually 
entered upon by all those in the second stage 
of the Christian life ; it is not in their own 
weak powers but in faith upon the divine Re- 
deemer. In fellowship with him, they appro- 
priate his victory to themselves, and in him 
they strive and conquer. 

There is a second word to the young men : 

Chap. ii. 14: "I have written unto you, 
young men, because ye are strong, and the word 
of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome 
the wicked one"" 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 47 

The period of conflict is characterized by 
strength. It is needless to say the strength is 
not our own. Paul, when preparing believers 
for the Christian conflict, begins by urging 
them: "Be strong in the Lord and in the 
power of his might." The armor is, "the whole 
armor of God." None less will do. We con- 
tend with "the wiles of the devil," "against 
spiritual wickedness in high places." Well may 
the injunction be repeated: "Wherefore take 
unto you the whole armor of God." Every piece 
of the armor is from God. "Truth," "right- 
eousness," "the gospel of peace," "faith," "sal- 
vation," and "the sword of the Spirit." Hence 
well might Paul pray for all those who were 
living in this period of conflict " to be strength- 
ened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." 
How well, too, to recognize God that is in us 
" able to do exceedingly abundantly above all 
that we ask or think, according to the power 
that worketh in us." That power that worketh 
in us is nothing less than the almighty power 
"which raised him from the dead, and set him 
at his own right hand in the heavenly places." 
Well may John in more condensed statements 
say, ''Ye are strong." 

The secret, too, of effective offensive strength 
is stated: "the word of God abideth in you." 
The only offensive weapon mentioned by Paul is 
"the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 



48 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

God." That word communicated life to them, 
for they were born, " not of corruptible seed, but 
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liv- 
eth and abideth forever." That word endureth 
forever, and hence is present in the heart all 
through the stage of conflict. "His seed re- 
maineth in him." That same word cleanseth 
away evil : " Now ye are clean through the word 
which I have spoken unto you." (John xv. 3.) 
" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his 
way? by taking heed thereto according to thy 
word." (Ps. cxix. 9.) How the soul is often 
strengthened as it " feels the sublimity there is 
in a saying fresh descended from the porch of 
heaven." That word captivates all our facul- 
ties, exalts our emotions, and raises our intel- 
lectual energies to divine strength. It opens 
the gates of heaven, points to the shining path 
of life, and leads to the light which flows from 
the throne of God. 

Christ is our example as in the power of the 
Spirit he wields this sword of God. He hun- 
gered, and with -wily cunning Satan said unto 
him, "If thou be the Son of God, command 
these stones that they be made bread." Forth 
from the girdle of truth Christ draws the sword 
of the Spirit, and upon its sharp blade, shining 
with heavenly light, we read, " Man shall not 
live by bread alone, but by every word of God." 
Satan trembles while it flashes before him. 



Degbees in Life and Fellowship. 49 

See yon mountain top. Satan shows him all 
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time 
and tempts him with this : "All this power will 
I give thee, and the glory of them. ... If thou 
therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." 
Again flashes forth upon the dark tempter the 
sword of the Spirit, and written upon its blade, 
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
him only shalt thou serve." And with one blow 
Christ brings the wily tempter to his knees. 

Behold yon pinnacle of the temple. The 
tempter suggests: "If thou be the Son of 
God, cast thyself down." In the might of holy 
omnipotence, Christ lifts the sword, flaming in 
letters of living light, " Thou shalt not tempt 
the Lord thy God," and smites the prince of 
the power of the air, who, falling "like light- 
ning down from heaven," bit the dust in utter 
defeat. And, behold, angels came and minis- 
tered unto the conquering Christ. So, too, 
wielding the sword in the energy of the Spirit 
and winning the victory, they minister to 
"young men" on the battle-field, and fill their 
hearts with the peace, purity, and power of 
God. 

Here is the most powerful weapon of the be- 
liever's strength: "The word of God is quick 
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword ; piercing even to the dividing asunder of 
the soul and spirit, and of the joints and mar- 



50 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

row, and is a discerner of the thoughts and in- 
tents of the heart." * It is " mighty through 
God to the pulling down of strongholds, cast- 
ing down imaginations, and everything that ex- 
alteth itself against God." The secret of all 
victories over the wicked one is in these simple 
words : "It is written," t and "It is said." X 

A word of warning is uttered : 

Chap. ii. 15: "Love not the world, § neither 
the things that are in the ivorld. If any ?nan 
love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
him." 

God should be the single object of man's 
supreme love. No other love may stand in 
competition with it; all life must be subject to 
this master-passion. Man's supreme love gives 
direction and character to his life, and places 
its stamp upon his soul. The world and all 
that is in it must be secondary, must be subor- 
dinate to this love which is sovereign. True 
love to God places the world at our command 
for use to God's glory. 

"The friendship of the world is enmity to 
God," because the one affection expels the 
other. The love of the world may expel from 
the heart love to God, and hence to the young 

*Heb. iv. 12. tLuke iv. 4. JLuke iv. 12. 

§ Huther : ' ' Mankind fallen away from God and of hos- 
tile disposition toward him — all it lives for and has for its 
own." 



Degeees in Life and Fellowship. 51 

men the apostle says, "Love not the world, 
neither the things that are in the world." In- 
deed, these two loves are mutually exclusive : 
"If any man love the world, the love of the 
Father is not in him." The love of the world 
is a dark spirit which drives from the soul that 
angel from heaven, the love of the Father. 
There can be no competition ; all other love 
must be subordinated to this holy love, must 
flow from its pure heart, and rest upon it as the 
ultimate basis. Any love of the things of the 
world, of home, of friends, of children, which 
puts in a claim to stand beside this fair daugh- 
ter of God, is really opposed to her as a rival. 

The apostle would define under what aspect 
" the world " is here spoken of. It is not the 
world in itself that is here mentioned, but "the 
world in its ethical aspect as taking possession 
of the soul and severing its connection with 
God, who is the source of life. It is the point 
at which the human soul takes hold of the 
world, and is moved by it away from God." 

Chap. ii. 16 : "For all that is in the vjorld, 
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and' 
the pride of life, is not of the Father, hut is of 
the world." 

Then there are three essential elements in 
this ethical view of the world : First, there are 
the fleshly appetites in every sinful form, and 
even in innocent forms, if supreme. Secondly, 



52 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

whatever is an object of sensuous pleasure 
through the eye. Thirdly is mentioned all the 
pomp, vanity, ostentation, splendor, and show 
of worldly things. These cause the heart to 
swell with pride and vainglory. "All that is 
in the world, the lust of the flesh, "* the inordi- 
nate desires proceeding from the flesh, gluttony, 
drunkenness, and voluptuousness ; " the lust 
of the eyes,"* magnificence, much that runs the 
line of fine arts and worldly splendor ; "the 
pride of life," its opulence, boasting, and arro- 
gance. None of these are of the Father, but are 
of the world. 

How opposite are the final issues of the two 
courses of life. 

Chap. ii. 17 : " And the world passeth away 
and the lust thereof ; hut he that doeth the will 
of God abideth forever." 

All that is in the world is perishable : " The 
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth 
also and the works that are therein shall be 
burned up." (2 Peter iii. 10.) "The heavens 
and the earth, which are now, by the same word 
are kept in store, reserved unto fire against 
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men." (2 Peter iii. 7.) How clear and em- 
phatic the conclusion : " Seeing, then, that all 
these things shall be dissolved, what manner of 

* The genitives denote the outward occasion or source — 
external occasions of internal lusts. 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 53 

persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation 
and. godliness ? " (2 Peter iii. 11.) 

It is not only the world that passeth away, 
but also "the lust thereof." "The lust of the 
flesh" and "the lust of the eyes" have van- 
ished as their objects passed out of sight before 
the clear shining of eternity's day. In that 
sphere are no corrupting lusts, but therein 
"dwelleth righteousness." "Wherefore, be- 
loved, seeing that ye look for such things, be 
diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, 
without spot, and blameless." (2 Peter iii. 14.) 

In view of the world passing and the lusts 
thereof, he who seeks his highest good in the 
perishable will see that for which he has toiled 
a prey to destruction, and nothing left upon 
which to feed his soul's sore disappointment. 
How different with him "that doeth the will of 
God." He "abideth forever." Indeed, "the 
word of the Lord endureth forever," and the 
same eternity and stability is in the heart of 
those who do God's will. Such an one will 
survive all the shadows of the earthly and at- 
tain to an eternal, divine life of blessedness. 
The one who " doeth the will of God " lives 
forever in the 'presence of both the object and 
end of all his efforts, and hence is beyond the 
fear of decay or death. 

The apostle recognized the fact in these 
words addressed to young men, that " the great- 



54 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

est difficulty, after conversion, is to keep the 
heart with God." Hence his injunction to them 
to fasten their hearts on the will and word of 
the Holy One, and ever turn away with shud- 
dering from the darkness of this present evil 
world and its insane devotion to unsatisfying 
and unenduring idols. 

III. The least advanced in the Cheistian 
life are the babes in Christ. 

The phrase "little children" (vs. 13 and 18) 
is not a translation of the word zszvcd, which is 
used in vs. 12, and expresses birth relation- 
ship, including all ages, but of the word Tzacoca* 
which is essentially a term indicating age. 
There are babes in Christ — those who have just 
begun the life of faith. These constitute the 
third class in the family of God. rexvca includes 
all those born of God, while Ttacdta includes only 
those who have recently entered God's family. 

Chap. ii. 13: " I write unto you, little chil- 
dren, because ye have Jcnowri the Father.''' 

How beautiful the reason assigned for ad- 
dressing them, " Ye have known the Father." 
" Known," of course, in John's method of think- 
ing, is not mere intellection, but reaches in ex- 
perience to the very roots of the life in the 
heart. It brings into secret acquaintance with 
the Father. Here the Christian life dawns. 

*See -aiSia in Liddell and Scott ; also its host of com- 
pounds. 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 55 

Before conversion the divine being is simply 
God, Creator, Preserver, and Judge ; in conver- 
sion, in the face of Jesus, the Saviour, the 
Father is seen, and his love is recognized. 
From that moment the babe in Christ knows 
his Father : " He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father." 

The babes in Christ need much warning, 
more than any other class. With the eighteenth 
verse the apostle begins his warning to the 
babes, and only concludes with the twenty- 
seventh verse. 

Chap. ii. 18: " Little children, it is the last 
time: and as ye have heard that anti-Christ 
shall come, even now are there many anti- 
christs ; whereby we know that it is the last 
time." 

Christs requires us to watch the signs of the 
times. Heedless inattention to the character 
of the age in which we live is not wise. 

The apostle says to the babes "it is the last 
time," or last hour. All revelations had their 
goal in the Christian epoch. It is the last time, 
the last stage in the development of the king- 
dom of God. This was certain, for the age had 
the characteristic mark of the last time, viz. : the 
appearing of anti-Christ. They had heard that 
anti-Christ shall come, i. e., the appearing of 
the anti-Christ was to be the sign of the last 
time. The apostle shows them that already the 



56 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

anti-Christian spirit was at work, so much so 
that "even now are there many anti-Christs." 
Many individuals rising on every side, filled with 
the anti- Christian spirit, are but precursors of 
the anti-Christ who is to be the true embodi- 
ment of that spirit. 

The anti-Christian spirit emerges from within 
the bosom of Christianity itself, hence the pe- 
culiar power to seduce and lead away young 
Christians. 

Chap. ii. 19 : " They went out from us, hut 
they ivere not of us ; for if they had been of 
tis, they would no doubt have continued tvilh us; 
but they went out, that they might be made mani- 
fest that they were not all of us." 

"They went out from us," teaching us that 
formerly they had not been hostile to the 
church, but professedly a part of it, but had 
now gone out from it. The germs which 
anti- Christian teachers were to develop were 
already in the soil of the church. These 
very persons had been known as brethren in 
the church, had claimed the same Christian 
faith and experience ; now, however, were found 
in opposition to the cause of Christ. 

The babes in Christ need to be guarded 
against such example and teaching. The ex- 
planation given by the apostle consoles us for 
the defection and prevents us from being per- 
plexed by it: "They were not of us." They 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 57 

liad mere external relationships with God's 
family, but never had birth into that fam- 
ily. There were genuine and spurious chil- 
dren; the spurious had not the life of God 
in their hearts. The result is appealed to, to 
prove the genuineness of the faith: "For if 
they had been of us, they would no doubt have 
continued with us." Indeed, "they went out," 
and that fact made it evident that none of them* 
were of us. There is ever this sifting to sepa- 
rate the wheat and chaff which mingle in a 
common mass on the same threshing-floor. 
The babes are liable to be deceived, and hence 
the apostle turns the sword of the Spirit against 
the most subtle forms of the anti-Christian 
spirit, and desires if possible to cut up its roots 
before it becomes fully developed and most 
dangerous. 

Where are the means for resisting these de- 
ceptive appearances, for clearly distinguishing 
between the Christian and anti-Christian? 

Chap. ii. 20 : '* But ye have an unction from 
the Holy One, and ye know all things." 

The babes, even, carry in their hearts the 
touch-stone for all claims, the safeguard against 
all error. The " anointing" or "unction " is the 
symbol of the power of God's Spirit imparted 
to the members of his family. Jesus is the 
Christ, the Anointed One, having received the 

*Demarest, in. loco. 



58 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Spirit without measure, and hence the full guide 
of the heavenly one in his walk here below. 

So by virtue of our union with him we are 
partakers of the Holy Spirit. The fulness of 
the divine guidance is imparted to us, and sur- 
rendering ourselves to him we have in him the 
knowledge of all things. 

They have had that inward anointing : 

Chap. ii. 21: "I have not written unto you 
because ye Jcnoia not the truth, but because ye 
knoio it, and that no lie is of the truth" 

They knew the truth, and hence had enjoyed 
that guidance. No lie is of that truth, and so 
they can test? every pretension. Through this 
inward anointing from the Holy One all believ- 
ers stand in immediate fellowship with Christ, 
the Great Teacher, and hence possess the in- 
ward fountain of illumination in the divine 
word interpreted by the Holy Spirit, the Vicar 
of Christ, in the temple of the soul. Hence the 
believer should place himself in a position of 
abject dependence upon no human teacher, 
and possesses in the word of God, and the 
anointing, the perfect touch-stone to distin- 
guish between what is of Christ and of the 
antichrist. 

The apostle points out the principal errors of 
the anti-Christian spirit : 

Chap. ii. 22, 23 : " Who is a liar but he that 
denieth that Jesus is the Christ f He is anti- 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 59 

christ that denieth the Father and the Son. 
Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not 
the Father" 

Jesus is the central sun of all truth, and 
hence to deny that Jesus is the Christ, in what- 
ever way, makes one a kind of universal liar. 
Denying Jesus, one has broken the very axis of 
truth. Such an one is the liar. (0~ (peuar/jz. )* 
One may hold that Jesus is a mere man, an 
enlightened prophet, the flower of the human 
race, denying that he is the eternal life mani- 
festing itself ; or one may recognize him as the 
fountain of divine life, the eternal God, deny- 
ing the reality of his human manifestation ; or 
again, in word recognizing both sides of his 
nature and office, one may claim for one's self 
or some one else infallible authority, which 
practically removes Jesus from his throne and 
puts man in his place. Jesus as the Christ, 
the prophet, priest and king, is the foundation 
of all apostolic teaching, the root of the gospel. 
To deny Christ in any of these aspects is to 
play the liar. 

The antichrist is one who denies the Father 
and the Son. The knowledge of God the Father 
is based upon the Son. In proportion as Christ 
is known, God as Father is known and under- 
stood : " No man hath seen God at any time ; 
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of 

* Luther is incorrect in translating " a liar." 



60 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

the Father, he hath declared him." (John i. 
18.) The only begotten Son alone, by virtue 
of his being one with God, truly and fully 
knew his infinite being and character, and 
hence could reveal him in forms comprehensi- 
ble to man. God dwelt in inaccessible light, 
but in the revelation of the incarnate God came 
near to the heart of humanity. In Jesus Christ 
we perceive God, and the chasm which sepa- 
rated us from God is closed. Confession of 
the Son is confession of the Father ; denial of 
the Son is denial of the Father. Giving up 
Christ, . again, the infinite gulf opens between 
us and the Father : "Whosoever denieth the 
Son, the same hath not the Father." 

Important is one's relation to Christ, and be- 
fore closing his message to the babes he urges 
them to persevere therein : 

Chap. ii. 24 : " Let that therefore abide in 
you, which ye have heard from the beginning. 
If that which ye have heard from the begin- 
ning shall remain in you, ye also shall con- 
tinue in the Son and in the Father." 

Those false teachers would estrange them 
from what they had heard from the beginning, 
from the original teaching of the gospel. The 
life had been manifested and came forth from 
eternity, delivering them a message that "God 
is light, and in him is no darkness at all." All 
this which they had received from the begin- 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 61 

ning should abide, continue, in them." It was 
to strike its roots deep into their inner con- 
sciousness and take hold on all the principles 
of their nature. The continued in-dwelling of 
this oriorinal truth in their hearts is the essen- 
tial condition of abiding fellowship: "Ye also 
shall continue in the Son and in the Father." 
How close the relationship is, is indicated by 
" in the Son and in the Father." Their very life, 
which is the root of all fellowship, has its foun- 
dation in Jesus the Son of God, and reaches 
up to the Father. 

To cheer them in their efforts at holding fast 
the original truth, he condenses all God's pro- 
mises into one shining globe of light, "eternal 
life." 

Chap. ii. 25 : "And this is the promise that 
he hath promised us, even eternal life." 

This alone can be called "the life," having 
come out of God's heart, and in the truest and 
most unqualified sense satisfying all the desires 
of man's heart. Entrance into this is life ; ex- 
clusion from it is death. It is eternal. It came 
forth from eternity, partook of God's everlast- 
ing youth, gushed from the fountain of his 
heart, and continues to flow forever in glad 
and increasing vigor. 

The apostle pauses to tell the babes why he 
has written at length to them : 

* Abides in the soul as something that determines life. — 
Neander. 



62 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Chap. ii. 26: "These things have I written 
unto you concerning them that seduce you." 

Literally, it would be: "These things have I 
written unto you about those deceiving you," 
that is, those who would deceive." The chil- 
dren needed warning. Deceivers were abroad, 
trying to lead God's dear ones astray. 

But the great comfort and safeguard is men- 
tioned in closing his words to the babes : 

Chap. ii. 27: "But the anointing which ye 
have received of him ahideth in you, and ye 
need not that any man teach you : hut as the 
same anointing teacheth you of all things, and 
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath 
taught you, ye shall abide in him." 

"Ye shall abide in him" is uttered as an 
assurance. They were independent of these 
teachers who would seduce them ; they had an 
unction which included infinite wisdom, and 
which was the infallible touch-stone of truth and 
error. How God loves and cares for the babes 
in Christ! 

The 27th verse concludes all that the apostle 
says to the third class of God's children, the 
babes in Christ. In the 28th verse all God's 
children, of whatever stage of maturity, are 
spoken to. 

We may say that the 28th verse is the con- 
clusion of the address to God's family, and 

*Demarest, in loco. 



Degrees in Life and Fellowship. 63 

hence it is addressed to the "fathers," to the 
"young men," and also to the "babes." 

Chap. ii. 28: "And now, little children, abide 
in him; that, when he shall appear, we may 
have confidence, and not be ashamed before him 
at his coming." 

The word for little children is the same as in 
the 12th verse, rexvcd* indicating, not age, but 
birth-relationship, those who are "born of him," 
all God's family. All of you abide in him, and 
then shall you be bold before him. When he 
appears, all human props and supports will be 
weak and vain; but, abiding in him, we shall 
not be ashamed, for as he is, so are we. There 
is an absolute, unshaken confidence, as of bo- 
som friends. Conscious of being ever faithful, 
in him believers shall have boldness, and meet 
him with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 

What a beautiful picture of God's entire fam- 
ily! There are those who have for years en- 
joyed sweetest fellowship ; those, too, who are 
in conflict with evil, and have overcome the 
wicked one; and, besides, (exquisite portrait') 
the babes who but a short while have rested in 
the warm arms of the Father's love. Behold 
the family in communion with the Father ! 

* See Liddell and Scott. 



IV. 

(Efyaracter of tfye £ife in (Sob's 
<£f}il5rerL 

A STUDY IN 1 JOHN II. 29; III. 1-18. 

1 ' In this the children of God are manifest, and the chil- 
dren of the devil." — 1 John iii. 10. 

GOD is the source of life. That life had not 
been known to the world lying dead in 
trespasses and sins. The life, however, was 
manifested and in incarnate form moved among 
men. Jesus Christ came into the world, and his 
wonderful career was flung upon the pages of 
human history; more than that, "in him was 
life"; nor did the life continue reserved within 
his own being, for "the life was the light of 
men." That" divine life was to pass from him 
into the hearts of all God's children : " As 
many as received him, to them gave he power 
(the right) to become the sons of God, even to 
them that believe on his name." He said, "I 
am come that they might have life, and that 
they might have it more abundantly " ; and, in- 
deed, so true is it that he is the source of life 
for them that he could say, "I am the life." 
Divine spiritual life was in God's heart as its 



Character of Life in God's Children. 65 

eternal infinite reservoir. Christ was the per- 
fect expression of God's nature, and hence the 
same life was in him unfolding itself in the most 
heavenly forms. Plant a grain of corn, and be- 
cause it has the corn-life in it there will de- 
velop that particular blade and stalk and ear. 
Plant a grain of wheat, and from it comes the 
blade and nodding head of wheat with its 
golden harvest, all because the wheat-life is in 
it. Christ the divine "corn of wheat" came 
into the soil of earth, unfolded the divine life, 
and then communicated that life to many others, 
brought " forth much fruit," all containing the 
germ of his life. Plant yon bulb, it grows, 
spreads its glossy leaves in their beautiful forms, 
and at last presents the lily in matchless purity 
crowning all. Why does that common bulb 
present such perfect result? Because it con- 
tained the lily-life. A person was born at Beth- 
lehem, knew a perfect childhood, showed to 
man's enraptured gaze manhood without flaw, 
"knew no sin," even while in humiliation was 
transfigured by virtue of his own inherent glory, 
spoke as never man spoke, filled the hearts of 
men with heavenly aspirations, amid persecu- 
tion's fires revealed only fine gold in his nature, 
and at last rising above all, took his seat at the 
right hand of the Majesty on high. What is 
the cause of that wondrous career ? The divine 
life germ within him was but unfolding in 
5 



66 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

earthly forms God's nature. Indeed, for this 
very purpose "the Word was made flesh and 
dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the 
glory as of the only begotten of the Father), 
full of grace and truth." 

Here then we have an infallible test to apply 
to those who claim to be God's children. Christ 
has fully and accurately revealed the life in the 
heart of the Father, and hence we know how to 
recognize all those who have God's life in them. 
They must unfold that life after the pattern or 
type furnished by Christ. No one mistakes the 
common dock for the lily ; a different life is at 
the bottom, and it is manifested in vastly dif- 
ferent forms. A child of God has God's spirit- 
ual life in him, and hence must show many of 
its beautiful characteristics : "In this the chil- 
dren of God are manifest, and the children of 
the devil." 

We now have in our hands the key which 
unlocks this whole section of God's precious 
word and reveals its treasures. 

There are two essential characteristics of the 
divine life brought out in this passage : 

I. KlGHTEOUSNESS IN BEING AND IN ACT IS ONE 
OF THE FOEMS IN WHICH THE DIVINE LIFE UNFOLDS 
ITSELF. 

Chap. ii. 29: "If ye know that he is right- 
eous, ye know that every one that doeth right- 
eousness is horn of him" 



Character of Life in God's Children. 67 

The basis of all is in the fact, " He is right- 
eous." It had before been stated thus : " God 
is light, and in him is no darkness at all." 
Here we have God's nature made known to us. 
Then, if God's nature is righteousness, how 
inexorable the logic that his children will do 
righteousness. "Every one that doeth right- 
eousness is born of him;"* literally, this would 
be, not " is born," but hath been begotten. Hav- 
ing been begotten of God, having God's life in 
them, righteousness will be found in them too. 
The same is the true meaning in John i. 13: 
"Which were bornt (begotten), not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." The doing of righteousness 
is a sure proof of regeneration, of the presence 
of divine life ; it is an unfolding of that life, 
just as the lily-bloom is the unfolding of the 
lily -life. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, 
and develops in the form of flesh ; but he who 
is begotten of God leads a life of spirit, a life in 
harmony with God, for by this sign does the 
birth from God make itself known. True right- 
eousness can only be derived from the divine 
life, and that life is communicated to men only 
by being born of God. 

Wonderful and glorious love is shown in per- 
mitting us to be called the sons of God, so 



ysyewrjrac. *j" iyewrjdrjffa^. 



68 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

much so that it can only be expressed in an in- 
definite form. 

Chap. iii. 1 : " Behold, what manner of love 
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we 
should be called the sons of God ; therefore the 
world Jcnoweth us not, "because it knew him not." 

"Sons of God," or "children of God" (Key. 
Yer.). How easily spoken! How glorious! 
How sublime a thing to be a child of God ! In- 
deed, it is love inexpressible that lifts us to such 
dignity and privilege. This love was given to 
us in order that we should be called " children 
of God." God wished to introduce us into his 
family, to make us really his children ; and 
hence this love was given, this gift of love, 
i. e., regeneration, was accomplished "of God." 

The translation " sons of God " is properly 
made " children of God " in the Revised Ver- 
sion. This is zixvo., and lays stress, as the con- 
text demands, upon the birth -relationship. The 
root idea is found in rrxzco (to beget), and hence 
the members of God's family have God's life 
and nature within them. It is not Ttcudia, for 
that refers mainly to being quite young ; it is 
not oloc, for that indicates public title, social 
and legal relation, but it is rixva, real, genuine 
birth-relationship. One might be another's 
btoq without being at all like him in character 
or nature; but to be one's rixva we must have 
his nature, his life. Here is expressed commu- 



Character of Life in God's Children. 69 

nity of nature as born of God. We are not 
merely God's sons as having been adopted by 
him, but as having been "begotten by him. 

There is another improvement by the Ee- 
vised Version : "And such we are," or we may 
translate even more closely to the Greek: 
"And we are."" Not simply have we the dig- 
nity, not simply are we called the sons of God, 
but " we are." Blessed words, " and we are " ; 
there is no question, no doubt about it ; there 
is no mere assuming of titles, no legal fiction, 
but we are really God's own children, begotten 
of him ; we are not mere pretenders, but are 
legitimate children of the God of heaven. 

But many do not discern our character and 
privilege as God's children, "therefore the 
world knoweth us not." The world does not 
consider us entitled to such honor. People 
will not believe that I am God's child. What 
of that? All that amounts to nothing. We 
are not to be disturbed on this account. The 
very life in the hearts of God's children is a 
hidden life. Christ was the perfect expression 
of God's life, and yet when "he was in the 
world" "the world knew him not." Indeed, 
"he came unto his own, and his own reecived 
him not." We are not to be surprised that the 
world knows us not, " because it knew him 
not." Being opposed to God when his life in 



70 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Jesus Christ appeared in the world, men mani- 
fested the deepest hostility to him, and just for 
the same reason will not know, nay, will ever 
be hostile to, the children of God, who have his 
life and nature in them. So absolutely alike is 
the life in God, in Christ, and in God's chil- 
dren, that we must fare at the hands of the 
world as he did. The world did not know him, 
hence does not know us. His life was never 
appreciated, nor is that in the children of God 
appreciated. 

But the lack of appreciation cannot hinder 
the blessed results of our relation to him. 

Chap. iii. 3 : "Beloved, now are we the sons 
of God, and it doth not yet appear vjhat we 
shall be : hut toe know that, lohen he shall ap- 
pear, loe shall be like him ; for we shall see him, 
as he is." 

Loved ones, now are we the children (rixua) 
of God. We are his children even now* how- 
ever unworthy we may appear and however lit- 
tle we may be appreciated. The soil may dwarf 
the divine life and prevent its perfect develop- 
ment ; nevertheless, we have that life in germ. 

But the infinite future lies before us : " It 
doth not yet appear." The lily-life is subject to 
hostile climate, and hence is imperfect. The 
life in us is an exotic from a celestial clime, 



* ' ' Amidst all the mistakes on the part of the world we 
are nevertheless really now the children of God." — Lucke. 



Character of Life in God's Children. 71 

"and" hence "it doth not jet appear what we 
shall be." There will be no difficulty in recog- 
nizing our unfolding of his life in the future. 
"When he shall appear" all will be well; the 
life will unfold itself in divinest forms under the 
immediate sunlight of his countenance. "We 
shall be like him." The life will have reached 
its type. For the present our "life is hid with 
Christ in God," but "when Christ who is our 
life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
him in glory"; yes, "with him in glory," be- 
cause "like him." 

What is the explanation of that perfect like- 
ness? "For we shall see him as he is." The 
sight of him makes us like him. Our life begins 
with a look: "Behold the Lamb of God." 
" There is life for a look at the Crucified One." 
In the same way that life develops : " We all, 
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord, are changed into the same image 
from glory to glory " So at last in the heavenly 
city we are made perfectly like him, and seas 
of bliss begin to roll through our souls, because 
" we see him as he is." What heaven in such a 
look ! Beholding God in Christ reacts upon the 
beholder, transforming him into a likeness to 
the object contemplated. "Like him." Like 
whom? Lik6 the Father. They are his chil- 
dren, and have his life. Christ is the perfect 
image to set the pattern ; the model image for 



72 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

the development. What a goal, poor sinner, 
are perfect intuition of the Father and perfect 
likeness to the Father as imaged in Christ! 

The apostle now states the effect of this 
blessed hope. 

Chap. iii. 3 : "And every man that hath this 
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is 
pure" 

"Every one" indicates every regenerated 
child of God. They have this "hope in him." 
It should read "hope on him," ~ :f and then carries 
a correct meaning ; it is leaninss; on him as their 
personal object, the promiser of eternal life and 
glory. The moral consequence of such a hope 
is, " purifieth himself, even as he is pure." There 
is something in God's child which should not 
be there, but this hope removes it and purifies 
the soul.t The standard of this purifying is 
Christ, "even as he is pure." He needed not 
to purify himself ; we do, and it is accomplished 
according to the spotless and sinless character 
of Jesus as he is in heaven. Having the same 
life as the life of Christ in glory, through the 
working of hope we are ever approximating to 
his divine purity. Christ was the ray of light 
shot from the heart of God into this dark world, 
and here untainted and untarnished he shone. 



t "Living to God's glory on earth is the gate to living in 
God's glory in heaven." — Andrew Murray. 



Character of Life in God's Children. 73 

"We should seek to be like liim, as one day we 
shall be. 

The Spirit warns against seducers who would 
lower the standard of moral conception. Sin 
is held up in its true character. In its nature 
and essence every form and decree of it is 
transgression of the divine law. Obedience to 
the law is absolutely required, and the law's 
demands reach every child of God, and cover 
the whole life of each one. Lay aside all 
distinctions of great and small sins ; all sin 
proceeds from the one fountain of depraved 
will in transgression of the divine law, and 
hence is on the same level. 

Chap. iii. 4 : " Whosoever committeth sin trans- 
gresseth * also the law : for sin is the trans- 
gression of the law" 

"Whosoever committeth sin" is, literally, 
"every one that doeth sin." Doeth expresseth 
a habit showing itself in constant repetition of 
acts. "For sin is the transgression of the law" 
is accurately "sin is lawlessness." Sin is "any 
want of conformity to or transgression of God's 
law." It covers all wrong being as well as wrong 
doing. 

Any indulgence in sin is in opposition to the 
life of God. Jesus was the expression of that 
life. What was the supreme object of his life? 

* tzoiwv rijv a/iapTtav is in antithesis to tzoi&v ri]» 
dtxatoffuvyv. 



74 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Chap. iii. 5 : "And ye know that he was mani- 
fested to take away our sins ; and in him is no 
sin." 

What opposition, then, in sin to the Christ- 
life of holiness! This is indicated in two re- 
spects : First, his mission, the reason for his 
manifestation was to take away sin ; second, 
"in him" the life of God manifested in the na- 
ture and career of Christ "is no sin." He was 
sinless, the Holy One. A child of God, then, 
must be holy and cannot indulge in sin, for 
such conduct would defeat the very purpose 
for which Jesus came into the world and also 
be in severe contrast to his beautiful life, as 
night is in contrast with day. His purpose in 
coming, and his character after coming, con- 
demns all sin in God's children and makes the 
habit of sin impossible to them. 

So great is the contrariety between sin and 
God's life in Christ, that " whosoever abideth 
in him sinneth not ; whosoever sinneth hath not 
seen him, neither known him." (Chap. iii. 6.) 

As a matter of fact, any life drawing its vi- 
tality from its divine life, any life rooted deep 
in the life of Christ and God, and continuing in 
that sphere of energy, "sinneth not." Such an 
one cannot sin wilfully and habitually. The 
lily cannot be black while the bulb has the life 
of the white lily in it, but its cells, like unseen 
hands, will weave its spotless dress of white. 



Character of Life in God's Children. 75 

With Christ's life in our souls there may be 
much soiling from contact with the world, but 
its unseen forces will work out that we shall 
purify ourselves "even as he is pure," and that 
finally "we shall be like him." 

On the other hand, "whosoever sinneth," 
every . one that sinneth or is sinning as the 
prevalent law of life, "hath not seen him." The 
eye of faith has not responded to the word: 
"Behold the Lamb of God." God's life has 
not entered that soul. He has not been born 
of God. Surely, too, every one that is sinning 
hath not "known him." Christ is practically 
a stranger to him. The living Christ enchains 
the soul of every believer in the sweet bonds of 
fellowship. They know each other, and their 
communion is very sweet. But such fellowship 
cannot exist where one's life-walk is not in har- 
mony with the divine model. One who con- 
tinues in sin never truly beheld his face nor has 
felt the pulse beats of the Holy One. 

Deceivers were in the world, and the world 
leads God's children into paths of sin s and, if 
not thither, at least into low conceptions of 
holiness and light estimates of sin. Hence : 

CHAr. iii. 7: "Little children, let no man de- 
ceive you : he that doeth righteousness is right- 
eous, even as he is righteous." 

Again, we have that sweet word "little chil- 
dren," T&evia, those who have been begotten of 



76 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

God, those who are his by true birth-relation- 
ship. With such, righteousness must come out 
in the life ; they must do righteousness in order 
to be righteous. Still, the eye is fixed on him. 
Such holiness as characterizes the life of the 
Father, "even, as he is righteous," must be 
seen exhibited in the conduct of his children. 
.There is here presupposed the legal righteous- 
ness of Christ as belonging to God's child. 
That righteousness, which always goes with 
the communicated life of God, reveals itself in 
the outward life. No course of action can have 
its roots in the life of Christ without in the end 
its dominant quality being righteous. The 
Christian life in its essential nature is opposed 
to sin, and blooms forth in purity and holiness. 

One who sins thereby classifies himself, and 
clearly reveals the source of his life and its 
kinship. 

Chap. iii. 8: "He that committeih sin* is of 
the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the begin- 
ning. For this purpose the Son of God was 
manifested, that he might destroy the works of 
the devil." 

One who is ever committing sin, and has not 
the life of God, is "of the devil." He is a child 
of the devil, because he imitates the devil in 
sinning, has fellowship with him in his diabol- 
ical opposition to God, and holds with the 
devil's forces in their war upon God. The 
* "Who lives in sin as his element." — Sander. 



Chaeactek of Life in God's Children. 77 

character of the devil is clearly revealed, "be- 
cause the devil sinneth from the beginning." 
From the moment of his rebellion in the celes- 
tial ages his whole life has been one of sinning. 
The sinner, then, reveals kinship with, and 
sympathy for, the devil. 

This inherent opposition is clear. The deep 
design of Christ in manifesting the life of God 
was, "that he might destroy the works of the 
devil." The works of the devil are sinful ; 
Christ desires to destroy them. When we live 
in sin we are taking arms against Christ, and 
are revealing that nature in us which God, by 
virtue of his holy nature, must destroy. Only 
he who renounces all sin as the work of the 
devil can take part in the work of Christ, and 
reveal in himself a growing fulfilment of the 
purpose for which Christ appeared in the flesh. 
There is deep philosophy for the fact that 
God's children cannot live a Life of sin. The 
apostle says: 

Chap. iii. 9 : " Whosoever is horn of God doth 
not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him; 
and he cannot sin, because he is horn of God." 

John states a matter of fact, namely, that he 
who is begotten of God doth not sin — does not 
practice sin. He next proceeds to unfold the 
cause of this fact, which is, "his seed remain- 
eth in him." The allusion here is not to seed 
scattered as in husbandry, but to human gen- 



78 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

eration. The same allusion is in John i. 13: 
"Which are born, not of blood, nor of the will 
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
The seed of God is the divine life derived from 
God, and imparted by the Holy Spirit quicken- 
ing with the word of God. Read First Peter i. 
23, literally : " Having been begotten again, not 
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through 
God's living and abiding word." In regenera- 
tion, or the birth of God, the seed of God, the 
life communicated to the dead soul, is infused 
through God's word as the instrument, and this 
word is living and abiding, exciting to holy 
activity. That life, then, not only continues, 
and never dies entirely, but its nature is such 
that it is ever at war with sin. Sin cannot per- 
manently triumph in the soul in which this liv- 
ing holy seed abides and exercises its sanctify- 
ing energies. Born of God, this life is in direct 
contradiction to sin, 

Thus begotten of God "he cannot sin";* 
having implanted a holy disposition and life, he 
cannot sin wilfully and habitually. The life of 
God is ever at work in his soul. He cannot sin 
continuously and finally as do the devil and his 
children. The reason is : " Because he hath 
been begotten of God," of the Righteous One, 
in whose image he is born, and besides, the life 



*"To be born of God and to commit sin are mutually 
exclusive contraries. " — Huther. 



Character of Life in God's Children. 79 

from God is ever assimilating him to God. 
How -unmistakably is taught the final persever- 
ance of God's children in the life which he im- 
plants within them. 

Two classes of men, then, fill the world, those 
who have this life and those who have it not : 

Chap. iii. 10: "In this the children of God 
are manifest, and the children of the devil • 
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God" 

The whole human race thus falls into two 
categories, the children of God and the chil- 
dren of the devil. The basis of classification is 
the presence or absence of righteousness ; one 
doing righteousness as a habit of life is placed 
in the first class, because evidence is thus given 
that God's life is within him ; while one living 
in sin is placed in the latter class, not being of 
God, but certainly of the devil. 

II. The second essential characteristic of 

THE LIFE FOUND IN THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD 
IS LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER. 

The all -important question is, who is " of 
God"? We have seen that "whosoever doeth 
not righteousness is not of God." And with 
equal certainty may it be said : 

Chap. iii. 10: "Neither he that loveth not his 
brother." 

In another chapter *■ we are to learn from this 
inspired penman that " God is love " ; that hence 

*iv. 7, 8. 



80 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

"love is of God," and so "every one that lov- 
eth is born of God." Love is one of the marks 
of divine life in the heart of the believer ; and 
very tenderly does the apostle say, " Beloved, 
let us love one another." Where there is no 
love there cannot be divine life, nor even any 
acquaintance with God: "He that loveth not, 
knoweth not God." 

Two all-important messages came to us from 
the very beginning: the first was, "God is 
light" ; the second is no less essential : 

Chap. iii. 11: "For this is the message* that 
ye heard from, the beginning, that toe should 
love one another." 

Here is an essential quality of the Christ-life. 
There are two revelations of God : one is, " God 
is light" ; the other is, " God is love." By the 
latter, as well as the first, the divine life is to be 
tested, and hence out of God's nature itself 
there comes the divine message that we should 
love one another. 

When we dig down to the roots of a human 
disposition we find two great principles acting 
in contrariety: hatred ever stands opposed to 
love ; hatred and love embrace all intervening 
grades of emotion. The apostle leaps from 
love to hatred in Cain : 

Chap. iii. 12 , 13: "Not as Cain, who toas of 



* dyyeXca in the sense of commission, commandment. 



Character of Life in God's Children. 81 

that wicked one, and slew his brother. And 
wherefore slew he him f Because his own works 
were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel 
not, my brethren, if the world hate you." 

Hatred in the heart of Cain manifested that 
he was "of that wicked one"; it sprung from 
beneath. Hatred in full fruition is murder. In 
this disposition there is the germ of murder; 
the germ develops, and lo! "He slew his 
brother."* The highest moral tribunal regards 
not the act alone, but condemns the first germ 
of it in the heart. Those are the children of 
God represented in Abel, and the children of 
the devil represented in Cain. 

Then we have love and hatred in perpetual 
conflict. Nor need the believer be surprised 
when the world hates him. It is a necessary- 
result of the contrariety of principle actuating 
the two classes, the children of God and the 
children of the devil. 

We can have an infallible evidence that we 
have the Christ-life. We are entitled to say, 
" We know." 

Chap. iii. 14, 15 : " We know that we have 
passed from death unto life, because we love the 
brethren. lie that loveth ?wt his brother abideth 
in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a 

* " This murder of his brother is the evidence that Cain 
was tz rod 7wurjpou. — Huther. 

6 



82 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

murderer : and ye know that no murderer hath 
eternal life abiding in him." 

" Have passed from death unto life " is an ex- 
pression for regeneration. We may know when 
this has taken place, "becaxise we love the 
brethren " ; that love is a necessary effect of 
being born of God. Here is an infallible test, 
and certainly one easily applied : conscious- 
ness can testify whether or not that love is 
in us. 

The love of God is life, and the true life of 
the human spirit is fellowship with God. All 
being apart from this fellowship, this life with 
God, manifesting itself in love, is death. The 
world lieth in death. The seeming life of the 
world is death. " He that loveth not his bro- 
ther" has no divine life in his heart, but 
" abideth in death." There is lacking in such 
a case the essential mark of the divine life. 
" Loveth not," in disposition and essence of 
things, is "hateth." "Whosoever hateth his 
brother is a murderer " in germ, but none the 
less in fact ; and it goes without the saying that 
" no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 
When hatred, which is equivalent in root to 
murder, exists, eternal life, God's life, has no 
existence. 

Christ is the standard of love, for he was the 
manifestation of the divine life : 

Chap. iii. 16 : " Hereby perceive we the love 



Character of Life in God's Children. 83 

of God* because he laid down his life for us :\ 
and we ought to lay down our lives for the 
brethren." 

We know what this love springing from the 
divine life is and does, for in Jesus we saw it 
lay down its life for us. This love in us should 
be a feeble effort, at least, to imitate the love 
exhibited in Christ. What love is we have 
learned from Christ's life ; and now if that life 
and love are in us, we can prove the fact by- 
readiness to sacrifice life itself for the brethren : 
"We ought to lay down our lives for the 
brethren." 

Nor does this love wait for a great crisis in 
which to express itself, such as is implied in 
the previous verse. 

Chap. iii. 17 : " But whoso hath this world's 
good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, 
how dwelleth the love of God in him f " 

Then is there ever danger of mere profession. 
Here is an opportunity always afforded for 
testing the profession of love: "The poor ye 
have always with you," and hence always a 
chance for expressing the divine life in benefi- 
cence. Mere show in words will not do. The 

* " Of G-od" should not be in the text : it obscures the 
meaning. See the Rev. Ver. 

t " Self-sacrifice is the very essence of true love." — 
Andrew Murray. 



84 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

bowels of compassion, the true bent of love, 
must not be shut up to prevent practical expres- 
sion of our love for the brother in supplying his 
great needs. It is useless to say we have that 
great love which lays down its life for the 
brethren if heedlessly we can see him have 
need. 

The apostle urges reality in our profession, 
and not mere words : 

Chap. iii. 18 : " My little children, let us not 
love in word, neither in tongue ; hut in deed and 
in truth."* 

The translation in the Revised Yersion is 
simply " little children," not " my little chil- 
dren." They are addressed as "children"; 
even the " little " detracts from the meaning, 
related to God by birth, rexvta. If we are God's 
children, with his life in our hearts, it must not 
simply be a love in word or an expression of 
the tongue, but that love must incarnate itself 
in deed ; it must rest in truth, and not in ap- 
pearance. Every expression of the divine life 
must be a reality, and not a sham. 

The corn-life unfolds itself in the blade, silk, 
tassel and ear, which gladdens the farmer's 
eye ; the wheat develops the blade, the slender 
stalk, the head full of meshes of golden grain ; 
so the divine life develops and unfolds itself in 

♦The Greek articles serve "to verify the expression." — 
Lucke. 



Character of Life in God's Children. 85 

the pure and glowing deeds of righteousness 
and love. This divine life reached its perfec- 
tion in Christ ; in us it shines towards the true 
ideal which Christ embodied. 

The lily-life expresses itself in glossy leaf and 
spotless flower ; the divine life in spotless 
rjurity. In Christ the purity was attained by 
nature ; in us it is striven for and partially at- 
tained. Some day, in a more genial clime, the 
Christ-life in us shall reach the ideal, when we 
shall be " like him " forever. 



donftbcncc anb tfye £?oly Spirit 

A STUDY IN JOHN III. 19; IV. 1-6. 

"And shall assure our hearts before him." — 1 John iii. 19. 
"By the Spirit which he hath given us."— 1 John iii. 24. 

GOD'S children are begotten of him; his 
spiritual and . holy life is in them. That 
life shows righteousness, because he is right- 
eous. The world knew not the divine life, and, 
indeed, it knew him not. We have that life 
only in germ, but the future shall see it fully 
developed: "When Christ, who is our life, 
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
him in glory." * " We shall be like him." 
This matchless hope sanctifies the soul. The 
life in the hearts of God's children is opposed 
to sin, and presents itself as in absolute con- 
trariety to lawlessness. Here is the clearly 
defined line dividing "the children of God" 
and "the children of the devil." 

With equal certainty does this life from 
Christ reveal itself in love to all the children of 
God. From the very beginning there came an 
urgent message from the depths of God's na- 
ture, to the effect that "we should love one 

* Col. iii. 4. 
86 



Confidence and the Holy Spirit. 87 

another." Cain manifested a nature the oppo- 
site of the Christ-life; he hated his brother. 
Hate is murder in germ. No one who hates, 
no murderer, can have eternal life in him. God 
revealed the kind of love in his heart in that 
" He laid down his life for us," and the same 
love should show itself in our lives. It is easy 
to love in mere tongue and word, but the divine 
life in the Christian calls for love " in deed and 
in truth." 

Thus the Holy Spirit paints the life which 
should be in God's children. Kighteousness 
and love are the essential birth-marks of all 
those who are born of God. This life also car- 
ries with it other marks and privileges. The 
apostle broadly names two others : 

I. The childeen of God have confidence in 

HIM, AND IN A FILIAL SPIEIT COMMUNE WITH HIM 
IN PRAYER. 

The apostle has just distinguished between 
"in word" and " in truth," between appearance 
and truth, and thence passes naturally to the 
broad statement that the Christian lif e is rooted 
in truth. 

Chap. iii. 19 : "And hereby we know that we 
are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts 
before him." 

If God's children, we are of the truth. There 
is, then, harmony between our outward conduct 
and the nature of the Christ-life within, and in 



88 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

fchis we have the best evidence that we are 
united to him who is "the truth." Truth is 
not mere knowledge, but it is the whole rela- 
tion of knowledge to the moral temper and 
inner life. Christ is absolutely " the truth" ; in 
him the truth has appeared in* personal form and 
become a persistent force in the life of humanity. 
When, then, we have evidence that we are of 
the truth, it is proof that we are his children. 
Thus we " shall assure our hearts before him." 

"With John, the word " heart" embraces the 
various faculties belonging to the moral nature 
as enlightened by God's word and Spirit. In 
whatever our hearts would condemn us and 
excite fear, we assure them with the filial rela- 
tion and fill them with holy confidence. An 
accusing conscience which would sting us to de- 
spair is restrained in its action by the fact that 
he is our Father. 

How bad is it to have a conscience which 
finds sin an evil in us ; for we may be sure, if 
our own faculties detect the evil, God's omnis- 
cient holy eye sees all the evil which is there. 

Chap. iii. 20: " For if our heart condemn 
us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth 
all things." 

The spiritual faculty in the Christian detects 
what is opposed to the divine life and con- 
demns it. It goes without the saying that God 
is infinitely wiser, knowing all things, and that 



Confidence and the Holy Spirit. 89 

the life which acts in our hearts works with 
infinite strength in him, and with infallible accu- 
racy discovers any taint of evil in his children. 
Hence, too, God is greater in authority than 
even our Christian consciousness. He is the 
Lord of the moral nature, and man's omnis- 
cient lawgiver. Then, having a bad conscience 
would disturb, not the child's birth -relation- 
ship, but his confidence ; and peace in God's 
presence, communion, would no longer be joyful 
and happy; the sinning child would come into 
his presence with fear of disapproval, expect- 
ing to find a frown upon his brow. 

But what a blessed contrast, should we have 
consciences which acquit us : 

Chap. iii. 21 : "Beloved, if our heart condemn 
us not, then have we confidence toward God."" 

" Beloved," loved ones ; now all the sweet- 
ness and meaning in this term may come out. 
They are born of God ; have his life in their 
hearts, with all its far-reaching legal results; 
but even more, if possible ; they have no cause 
for fear in themselves, and hence with confi- 
dence they can stand in the holy light of his 
presence. If having gone within our own 
hearts before the enlightened, holy, incorrupti- 
ble tribunal to judge ourselves, and we find a 
verdict in our favor, then may we with bold- 
ness come to the Father and speak his dear 
name. If our heart condemn us not, we have 



90 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

a pledge that God does not condemn, and will 
not turn his face from us. We even have the 
assured and joyful confidence towards God as 
a witness in our favor. The lower court has 
rendered for us ; we feel, then, confidence that 
the court of last appeal will confirm. 

Need we say that there is here no reliance 
upon human righteousness ? So far from this, 
the filial relation is assumed, the God-implanted 
life is taken for granted, and all the holy deeds 
are rested upon merely as evidences of that life, 
are its fruits, and by no means its cause. The 
apostle is indicating the conditions under which 
alone believers can find and enjoy all that is 
involved in the filial relations which God has 
caused in regeneration. I may say to a child : 
"Act thus if you would enjoy the unmixed favor 
and approbation of your father"; and so with 
no thought that our acts originate the filial re- 
lation, the apostle says : "Act so as to have a 
conscience which will not condemn, if you desire 
the perfect smile of our Heavenly Father." 

Our confidence in God expresses itself in 
prayer. "The Spirit of adoption" ever cries 
"Abba, Father." Prayer is an essential expres- 
sion of the God-begotten life. 

Chap. iii. 22 : "A?id whatsoever we ask, toe 
receive of Mm, because toe keep Ms command- 
ments, and do those things that are pleasing in 
Ms sight" 



Confidence and the Holy Spirit. 91 

As sons of God, whose filial relation has not 
suffered, we can go to him in child-like trust 
and confidence about our needs. We know be- 
forehand that our Father will grant all that is 
conducive to our good. It is as if we had al- 
ready received what we had asked. A certainty 
of being heard accompanies the prayer. 

What is the ground of this certainty ? " Be- 
cause we keep his commandments, and do those 
things that are pleasing in his sight." Of course 
what is meant is, that keeping the command- 
ments and doing what is pleasing in his sight 
is evidence of such strength of action on the 
part of the divine life within God's child that 
his prayers are more and more likely to ap- 
proximate the divine will in the case. The 
connection of prayer with the Christian life as 
a whole is already taught, and also that prayer 
proceeds from the holy disposition, the divine 
life, which lies now at the very roots of the be- 
liever's being. Keeping commandments such as 
are named below, and doing what is well-pleas- 
ing to God, shows concord between the human 
and divine wills. The desire within God's child, 
prompted by God's Spirit, is such as the Lord 
wills to give, " because he maketh intercession 
for the saints according to the will of God."* 

In fellowship with Christ, and honoring the 
Christ-life in our heart, the child of God more 
*Rom. viii. 26. 



92 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

and more approaches to asking for what Christ 
would have asked should he have been in his 
place. The same God who, by the implanted 
life and the action of his Spirit, inspires the 
prayer, hears and judges of it. 

The apostle would not be misunderstood in 
regard to what he means by commandments : 

Chap. iii. 23: "And this is his command- 
ment* that we should believe on the name of 
Ms Son Jesus Christ, and love one a?iother, as 
he gave us commandment" 

The commandments are not merely those of 
the decalogue, but go to the very heart of the 
gospel. The commandments are such as are 
demanded of the Christian life by virtue of its 
very nature, and assist in expressing its char- 
acter. The essence of the Christian life is here 
set forth. "Believe on the name of his Son 
Jesus Christ" is the initial act in the divine 
life. The Jews asked what they might do that 
they might work the works of God, and received 
as answer, " This is the work of God, that ye 
believe on him whom he hath sent."t " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved," gives us the first step taken in the di- 
vine life. We are to believe God's love as ex- 
pressed in giving his Son. 

*"The singular is used, because the manifold com- 
mandments, in their inner nature, form one unity." — 
Euther. f John vi. 29. 



Confidence and the Holt Spirit. 93 

But there is also a necessary out- acting of 
the divine life towards the fellow-members o£ 
the same family. "Love one another" is the 
external command, and also the internal law of 
the Christian life. Love is of God. If we love 
one another, we are born of God, and the divine 
life manifests itself. "But as touching bro- 
therly love, ye need not that I write unto you : 
for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one 
another."* God's life within his children 
blooms forth in flower and fruit of love. 

How well-pleasing it must be to God to see 
one believing on the name of his only-begotten 
and well-beloved Son, and to see his children 
living in mutual love ! How pleased God must 
be at this strong out-gushing of the life which 
he implanted, and with what sunshine of 
heavenly favor and bliss must he flood the souls 
of those of his children who give such excellent 
evidence of being his own ! What full fellow- 
ship is there ! What sweet communion ! What 
mutual understanding of each other's thoughts 
and wishes ! What a solid ground for expecting 
answers to prayers sent up from such an atmos- 
phere of home feeling among the children as 
they approach the Father. 

Keeping these commands is the condition of 
conscious and precious fellowship with him. 

*1 Thess. iv. 9. 



94 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Chap. iii. 24 : "And he that keepeth his com- 
mandments dwelleth in him and he in him." 

Believers in Christ loving the brethren have 
permanent moral union with him. " Believe " 
and " love " are the two test commandments, 
and reveal the presence or absence of the 
Christ-life. Their observance is the necessary 
condition to continued enjoyment of commu- 
nion with Christ. In their light is revealed the 
full sphere of the Christian life moving with 
divine celerity along its celestial orbit. That 
full sphere of Christian life and experience is 
made up of two blessed hemispheres : our 
dwelling in him and he dwelling in us. The 
two combined rise before our vision as some 
sun coming through the gates of heaven to 
illumine our world and lift it up to God. We 
dwell in him ; how blessed the thought. Richer 
still must it be that he dwelleth in us : " He 
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God 
in him." The two thoughts are never parted, 
but the last is deeper and sweeter. When we 
cross into the eternal city we will need no tem- 
ple : " For the Lord God Almighty and the 
Lamb are the temple of it." We shall ever be 
conscious of dwelling in him, and will need no 
temple domes above us ; we shall have eternal 
well-springs of bliss and heaven springing up in 
our souls, of which God, dwelling within us, 
will be the infinite fountain. 



Confidence and the Holy Spirit. 95 

II. The children of God have the Holy 
Spirit, which has been imparted to them at 
the moment of regeneration. 

All God's children have the indwelling Holy 
Spirit. Wherever the Christ-life is found the 
Holy Spirit is present : "For he dwelleth with 
you, and shall be in you." * He rested upon 
Christ without measure, and hence also rests 
in appropriate measure upon us. So true is 
this, that the apostle makes the presence of the 
Spirit the test of our abiding in Christ : 
'■ Chap. iii. 24: "And hereby we know that he 
abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given 
us." 

There is, without question, an internal con- 
sciousness quickened by the indwelling Holy 
Spirit. t We know that we are in followship 
with him by the Spirit which he hath given us. 
The Spirit testifies to us through the human 
consciousness in accordance with God's word. 
There is a Christian consciousness to which we 
may appeal, but never to support anything con- 
trary to God's word. The reason for this state- 
ment is evident. The Holy Spirit spoke by 
holy men, giving an objective word of revelation, 
and it is the same Holy Spirit who speaks in 

♦Johnxiv. 17. 

t "By 7rved/j.a is here to be understood 'The Holy- 
Ghost, who lives and works in the believer.'" — HutTier* 
De Wette is incorrect. 



96 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

the Christian consciousness, and can only speak 
in accord with the objective revelation. The 
subjective working of the Spirit can never be 
contrary to the objective word. 

But a warning is necessary. They may be 
imposed upon by designing men and evil spirits. 
Corrupt human nature, and a malignant spirit 
of evil, ever strive to imitate the inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit, and makes many boastful 
claims. These claims must not be accepted at 
random. There should be careful testing. 

Chap. iv. 1 : "Beloved, believe not every spirit, 
but try the spirits whether they are of God : be- 
cause many false prophets are gone out into the 
world" 

No spirit of credulity is encouraged. The 
very reverse is enjoined: " Believe not every 
spirit." Some spirits cannot be trusted; some 
claiming divine authority cannot be followed. 
Believe not all, but accept the true, reject the 
false. Yea, the command goes so far as to say : 
"Try the spirits whether they are of God." 
There is a Spirit of God ; there are evil and de- 
ceiving spirits ; we must carefully test which are 
of God. Try them. This injunction is impor- 
tant, "Because many false prophets are gone 
out into the world." There is, then, a true and 
a false inspiration ; the first originating in the 
suggestions of the Holy Spirit, and the second 
in those of evil spirits. Appearance merely will 



Confidence and the Holy Spirit. 97 

not determine ; sure tests must be carried with 
us. 

The apostle carefully points out those tests : 

Chap. iv. 2 : "Hereby know ye the Spirit of 
God." The first test is then given, viz.: "Every 
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come'* 
in the flesh is of God." 

Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of the 
Holy Spirit's teaching, and every prophet who 
fully confesseth Jesus Christ is moved by the 
Spirit of God. That Spirit, when it convinceth 
of sin, does so in relation to Christ : "Of sin, 
because they believe not on me."t "He shall 
glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and 
shall shew it unto you." % Speaking a full, true 
doctrine in regard to Jesus Christ, then, is the 
essential test to be applied to all claims of in- 
spiration. All others are false. None are true 
except those who give a true and loyal testimony 
to the divine-human Redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

The apostle would give emphatic utterance 
to this truth ; he states the negative : 

Chap. iv. 3: "And every spirit that confess- 
eth not that Jesus Christ is come § in the flesh 
is not of God ; and this is that spirit of anti- 
Christ whereof ye have heard that it should 
come, and even now already is it in the world" 

* Literally, " having come." 

f John xvi. 9. t John xvi. 14. 

§ Literally, ' ' having come, " 

7 



98 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Every one who denies the incarnation as set 
forth in the Scriptures, with all that it implies, 
cannot derive his doctrine from God. There is 
the emphatic mark of all false inspiration. One 
denying this doctrine is of the anti-Christ, and 
is imbibing the spirit which shall one day con- 
trol the anti- Christ. These errorists, says the 
apostle, are their forerunners. There is a 
christology which comes from the father of lies. 
Even in John's day that false spirit was coining 
his deceptions, and was trying to lead away the 
children of God. The initial point in the con- 
flict between truth and error was the Person of 
Christ ; the battle had begun before John wrote 
this epistle. 

In this conflict between the true and false 
where will victory place its laurels ? Hear the 
divine answer : 

Chap. iv. 4 : " Te are of God, little children, 
and have overcome them : because greater is he 
that is i?i you* than he that is in the worlds 

"We are "of God" by virtue of regeneration; 
we are God's children by the second birth. We 
are little children, zexvia, by virtue of birth. 
Hence the Holy Spirit is in us, and so we 
" have overcome them " ; it is as good as already 
accomplished. The reason is sufficient : " Be- 
cause greater is he that is in you, than he that 
is in the world." God's Spirit is mightier than 

* God, according to Grotins and Erdmann. 



Confidence and the Holy Spirit. 99 

Satan, the prince of evil spirits, and hence, 
being under his guidance, believers are assured 
of victory. We are " strengthened with might 
by his Spirit in the inner man." " Te shall re- 
ceive power after the Holy Ghost has come 
upon you." He is the " Spirit of power." Vic- 
tory must rest with God's Spirit. He is "in 
us," while another spirit is "in the world." 

The apostle states another test : The recep- 
tion or rejection of the apostolic word. 

Our character may easily be determined by 
what we speak, by what we gladly hear: 

Chap. iv. 5 : "They are of the world : there- 
fore speak they of the world, and the world 
heareth them." 

These false teachers and false prophets are 
"of the world."* Their origin as men and 
teachers is from the unrenewed world that lieth 
in the wicked one. They are, as teachers, chil- 
dren of the devil. The consequence is, that 
they speak what originates with the world, and 
is in unison with their depraved and unrenewed 
state ; and hence the world receiveth its own 
and heareth them. The world listens to such 
teaching with pleasure. "Their earthliness of 
mind is mirrored in their teaching." The 
world eagerly receives that which is kindred to 
its own spirit. Thus is brought to light the 

* The manifestation of the life corresponds with and evi- 
dences its source. 



100 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

essential contrariety between those who are of 
God and those who are of the devil. But the 
apostles were led of the true Spirit of God : 

Chap. iv. 6 : " We are of God ; he that hear- 
eth God heareth us ; he that is not of God 
heareth us not. Hereby know we the spirit of 
error and the spirit of truth." 

The attitude taken towards teachers of the 
true and teachers of the false becomes infalli- 
ble for classifying Christians themselves. "The 
spirit of truth" controls and directs God's chil- 
dren; "the spirit of error" guides and inspires 
the children of the devil. How emphatic the 
injunction which fell from the Saviour's lips as 
viewed in the light of this reasoning, "Take 
heed how you hear." When the words of light 
are gladly welcomed to our hearts and find lov- 
ing response there, then we, like those who, by 
inspiration of God, wrote those heavenly sen- 
tences, are " of God." 



w 



VI. 

"£et us iovc (Dm Ctnotfjer " 

A STUDY IN 1 JOHN IV. 7-21. 
'Beloved, let us love one another." — 1 John iv. 7. 
E have seen that the children of God 



have confidence in him, and in a filial 
spirit commune with him in prayer. Our 
hearts may be assured before him. If we live 
so that " our heart condemn us not, then have 
we confidence towards God." This confidence 
is manifested in prayer. We go in child-like 
trust to him about our wants. The condition 
of acceptable asking demands that "we keep 
his commandments, and do those things that 
are pleasing in his sight." What are those 
commandments? " That we should believe on 
the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one 
another." These cover the very essentials of 
Christian life; keeping them brings conscious 
and precious fellowship with him: " dwelleth 
in him, and he in him." Again, the children 
of God have the Holy Spirit, which has been 
imparted to them at the moment of regenera- 
tion : "We know that he abideth in us, by the 
Spirit which he hath given us." A warning is 
necessary, for it is not every one who claims 
101 



102 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

the Holy Spirit who has him, but many are 
inspired from the opposite source. "Try the 
spirits whether they are of God." The first test 
pointing to the presence of the true spirit is that 
he confesseth Jesus come in the flesh.. The 
other test is the acceptance of the apostolic 
word: "He that knoweth God heareth us." 

The apostle now comes to one of the most 
precious fruits of the Christ-life, which he dis- 
cusses fully. This fruit is Christian love. Paul 
analyzes love most fully in the thirteenth chap- 
ter of First Corinthians ; the white light of love 
passes through the inspired medium, and lo! 
on the inspired page what a heavenly arch 
rises to kiss the skies. Paul gives us all its 
component elements. Not so with John ; he 
assumes what is to him a more delightful task. 
He traces the celestial affection home to the 
heart of God and shows the infinite well-springs 
whence it flows down to a lost world and glad- 
dens it with the life of God. 

"We, Christian brethren, should love one 
another in view of the marvelous manifestation 
of divine love which has been shown us. 

I. The wondbous love op God is made known 
in the incarnation and propitiation of jesus 
the Son of God. 

Chap. iv. 7. 8: " Beloved, let us love one an- 
other . for love is of God; and every one that 
loveth is horn of God, and knoweth God. He 



"Let us Lo ye One Another." 103 

that loveth not, hioweth not God ; for God is 
love." 

" Beloved" is not meaningless or formal. It 
takes us back to Chapter iii. 1: "Ye loved 
ones." The apostle had said: "Behold, what 
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon 
us" ; and, also, "Ye loved ones, now are we the 
sons of God." Now that he would discuss 
Christian love, how beautiful, in one word, to 
drop a plummet-hne in the infinite fountain of 
love by saying, "Ye loved ones," and thus re- 
mind them of the Holy One, who had covered 
them with the kisses of his love. 

He says, "Let us love one another," not so 
much as a command as a logical entreaty. He 
would unfold to them new motives to love, and 
show them God's great loving heart until they 
shall be consumed by the same celestial flames. 

Whence comes love? " Love is of God." Its 
fountain is in God's being, and from him it 
flows out upon his own. So certainly as the 
life of God is implanted in our hearts, so surely 
must this life reveal itself in love.* The ab- 
sence of this love would show conclusively that 
we were not children of God, that his life was 
not in our souls. When this exotic from celes- 
tial climes is found blooming in the earthly fields 
of the human heart, we may be asssured that 
the life-germ came from on high. 

* aya-av is to be regarded as the criterion of ix too 0eou. 



104 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

The root was taken from God's nature, to be 
placed in the souls of tliose who are his chil- 
dren, and will grow until at last, transplanted 
in heaven, it will be ever laden with celestial 
fruitage : " Every one that loveth is born of 
God." If we love, we have God's nature, and 
are his children. 

Not only is love indicative of the presence of 
God's life in the heart, but it is also an essential 
to any true knowledge of God : " Every one that 
loveth . . . knoweth God." Participating in 
the divine life we are born of God, and hence by 
loving, and by loving alone, have we the capa- 
city for knowing God. By love we know God, 
for we participate by the act of loving in that 
which is the very nature of God. The dog can- 
not enter into all his master's thoughts, for he 
has not his master's nature. The unregenerate 
man cannot know God and commune with him 
in his holy plans and purposes, for he has not 
God's nature ; he does not love, and hence the 
very organ by which God is known is lacking : 
" He that loveth not, knoweth not God." Chris- 
tian love flows from the eternal fountain of love 
in God, and it is along the channel of its flow 
alone that we can come to the great sea of his 
being and fathom its infinite depths. Love is 
not only a mark of that higher life which pro- 
ceeds from God, but it is the door of entrance 
into the treasure-house of his nature. It is a 



" Let us Love One Another." 105 

ray from the primeval source of divine life shin- 
ing in the face of all his children, and it is also 
the light which guides them to their home in 
God's heart and reveals all its wealth of affection. 

The reason assigned for the statement that 
" He that loveth not, knoweth not God," is, that 
" God is love." * In John's view all true know- 
ledge of God proceeds from community of life. 
Hence, " being born of God " and " knowing 
God " are classed together. Hence, too, any 
one who loves not is far from knowing God. 

" God is love " is worth all systems of phil- 
osophy, and goes beyond all efforts of the rea- 
son of man. In this diamond cup of three 
words is condensed the cream of what the gos- 
pel teaches us about the infinite God. We can^ 
not believe, as many would have us think, that 
we are taught here that love is the essence of 
God's being.t Love is one of God's essential 
attributes, but not his essence. The phrase, 
" God is a spirit," teaches us concerning his es- 
sence, and this only of his attribute of love, an 
attribute which is very precious and glorious, 
the source of the blessed gospel. 

This love of God had a twofold objective 

* Those who wish to see a gem should see The Endear- 
ing Attribute, by Adolphe Monod, D. D., on this text. 

t Such teaching as the following, by Besser, is danger- 
ous : " Love is not so much a quality which God has, as 
rather the allembracing total of what he is." 



106 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

manifestation. The first manifestation was in 
the simple fact of the incarnation. The Spirit 
turns our eyes wholly outside ourselves to gaze 
upon the proof and character of the divine love. 
To the revelation thus made of God in the flesh 
the apostle now directs our attention. 

Chap. iv. 9 : " In this was manifested the 
love of God toward us, because that God sent 
his only begotten Son into the world, thai we 
might live through him." 

It is not that God was caused to love us 
by the coming of Christ, but Christ's coming was 
the result of God's love. His coming presup- 
poses that love in God which, moved him to 
save : " God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son." * The eternal love of God 
is the ground of the incarnation, not its result. 

God's love comes out in the fullest and most 
blessed way. He sent his only begotten Son 
into the world that we might live through him. 
The world was dead; no spiritual life-blood 
flowed through its heart ; man was not dying, 
but was dead. If man is to live, God must 
reach man. " In him was life," but could it 
flow in our veins? Only by his sending the 
one blessed object of infinite love, his only be- 
gotten Son, to be " made flesh " and to dwell 
among us. The glory of the only begotten of 
the Father, full of grace and truth, would be 

♦John iii. 16. 



"Let us Lote One Another." 107 

near enough to warm the dead heart of the 
world and quicken it, to send the new life 
through the hitherto dead body : " I am come 
that they might have life, and that they might 
have it more abundantly." 

What a display of love, for the Son to leave 
the Father's bosom, the mutual play of an in- 
finite love, the throne of the universe, the adora- 
tion of angels and arch-angels, to come to a 
poor, dark world of sin and woe; when in 
that world, to take the fleshly garments, which 
man had so stained, upon him, to be made of a 
woman, made under the law. To what infinite 
depths love stooped down to give life to its ob- 
ject! He "loved us and gave himself for us." 

The second part of the objective manifesta- 
tion is in his becoming a propitiation for sins. 

Chap. iv. 10 : " Herein is love* not that w* 
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son 
to be the propitiation J- vr our sins." 

Man was not only dead, he was guilty. "We 
were creatures of ill-desert. There were "our 
sins." Misery was forever linked to sin. Christ 
would save us from misery, and hence must 
bear our sins ; he must take our guilt upon him- 
self and make it his own. Death had been 
earned by man, and Christ must accept the 
wages. Not only was he " made of a woman," 
" made under the law," but he became " obe- 



* Love in general, not exclusively love, too 0eod. 



108 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

dient unto death, even the death of the cross.'* 
Then, if we would know the vastness of God's 
love, see his love for those who loved him not 
("not that we loved God"), watch as he gives 
his Son a propitiation for sins. The redeemed 
even in heaven finish not their songs until they 
celebrate the propitiation for sins : " Unto him 
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood."* 

The new song which rolls out over the sea of 
glory has for one of its refrains, 'Tor thou 
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy 
blood."t 

How logical and powerful the appeal which 
the apostle founds upon this revelation of God's 
love in the life and death of Christ ! The ap- 
peal is personal to believers : 

Chap. iv. 11 : "Beloved, if God so loved us, 
we ought also to love one another.'" 

Such love from God to us must beget love in 
return in those who are its objects ; and love 
enkindled by the sight of the redeeming love of 
God must manifest itself in love to each other. 
From consciousness of God's love to us must 
spring mutual charity : "We ought also to love 
one another." % "If God so loved us," we must 

*Rev. i. 5. f Rev. v. 9. 

X ' ' The obligatory force lies not merely in the example 
given by God's act of love, but also in this, that we, by 
means of it, have become the children of God, and, as 
such, love as he loves." — LiXcke. 



"Let us Love One Another." 109 

love, for we are commanded : " Be ye therefore 
followers of God, as dear children ; and walk in 
love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath 
given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice 
to God for a sweet- smelling savor."* 

Says Julius Miiller, speaking of the love of 
God in Christ being the inner seed which un- 
folds in progressive development into love to 
the Christian brother: "As the root lives on, 
although the plant has grown up out of it, and 
as the fountain does not cease to stream, though 
it has formed the brook, so, too, the beginning 
of the Christian life continues in its further pro- 
gress. Yea, as plant and brook at once cease 
to be if the root is dried and the fountain 
sealed, so Christian brotherly love ever con- 
tinues to derive its life from the love of God."t 

II. God's love to us is so great that he 

COMES INTO US AND MAKES THERE HIS DWELLING- 
PLACE. 

Chap. iv. 12 : " No man hath seen God at 
any time. If we love one another, God dwell- 
eth in us, and his love is perfected in us." 

We come now to our present enjoyment of 
God's love. When we speak of our present en- 
joyment ot God we are met by a seeming im- 
possibility : "No man hath seen God at any 
time." Yea, true. "No man hath seen God 



*Eph. v. 1, 2. 

+ Love is the substance of Christian life* 



110 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

at any time," for only through love can we 
know him, commune with him, and be assured 
of his dwelling in the temple of our hearts. 
"We can be united to the invisible God only by 
a spiritual bond, and only thus can we have 
assurance of continued fellowship with him. 
This spiritual bond is love. God is love, and 
all spiritual love radiates from him ; hence the 
union of the believer with him is manifested by 
the fact that love rules in him as the animating 
principle. The child of God is assured of union 
with God by God's abiding self-revelation as 
love. "If we love one another" we have per- 
fect evidence that " God dwelleth in us, and 
his love is perfected in us." By his dwelling in 
us, too, "his love is perfected in us." His love 
is perfectly proven in us, and reaches even a 
stronger manifestation, if possible, than on the 
cross. What a marvel of love that he should 
dwell in us ! 

But is there another evidence of that precious 
indwelling ? Indeed there is. Hear the words : 

Chap. iv. 13 : " Hereby know we that we dwell 
in him, and he in us, because he hath given us 
of his Spirit" 

We need not be in ceaseless doubt ; we may 
know that we "dwell in him " ; that God is the 
divine sphere of our lives, our very life-element, 
and that he is in us, dwells in our hearts by 
faith. How may we know? " Because he hath 



"Let us Love One Another." Ill 

given us of his Spirit."* This Spirit, imparted 
to believers through Christ, is himself the foun- 
tain of love, originating in God only, and break- 
ing out in blessings in our hearts : " The love 
of God is shed abroad (is poured out) in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto 
us."t Experience of the presence of the Spirit 
is a token and pledge of this mutual indwell- 
ing. 

Having touched upon the Spirit, the apostle's 
mind turns to that which is the great theme of 
the Spirit's testimony : 

Chap. iv. 14 : "And we have seen and do tes- 
tify that the Father sent the Son to he the Sav- 
iour of the world." 

The Spirit, says Christ, shall "testify of me." 
The apostle hears that testimony made in the 
Christian's heart and echoes the words. He 
too had seen the Son, "full of grace and truth," 
and, as an eye-witness, gives his testimony. 
While dealing with the subjective, that sweet 
communion with God, and listening to the ten- 
der voices of his love, which thrill our souls, we 
must never forget the great objective fact of the 
cross, through which God's love reaches us. 

This objective fact of Christ's life and death, 
must be accepted and confessed : 

Chap. iv. 15 : " Whosoever shall confess that 

*"It is the Spirit himself, and not his gifts only, that 
we receive." — Spener. t Romans v. 5. 



112 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him t 
and he in God." 

The Spirit's testimony is received and earn- 
estly believed. Faith's first fruit is confession ; 
so that, from the inner depths of the God-life 
within, and in answer to the Spirit's testimony, 
there comes the confession : "Jesus is the Son 
of God." This loyal and loving confession, 
then, becomes another proof to the believer 
that "God dwelleth in him, and he in God." 
The divine life within produces faith, and faith 
voices itself in confession ; the confession, then, 
is, as it were, God's own voice speaking through 
our hearts. 

The apostle then utters the personal expe- 
rience of all believers : 

Chap. iv. 16 : "And we have knoion and be- 
lieved the love that God hath to us. God is 
love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in 
God, and God in him" 

Knowledge and faith are related. The divine 
facts which are the objects of faith must be, to 
an extent, known before they can be believed. 
But also it is by faith accepting these divine 
facts that they become experiences of the inner 
life, or knowledge in its highest sense. Thus 
knowing and believing in God's love for us, we 
come to know God himself. 

Hence we may speak of God as known: 
"God is love." That being true, abiding in 



" Let us Love One Another." 113 

love is the condition and token of fellowship 
with God. Dwelling in love as our conscious 
sphere and life-element, we have indubitable 
proof that we dwell in God and God in us. The 
heart cannot be filled to the overflowing with 
Christian love without evidencing God's pre- 
sence, for he is its eternal fountain. With what 
emphasis, then, we may recur to the seventh 
and eleventh verses: "Beloved, let us love one 
another," and " if God so loved us, we ought 
also to love one another." 

"Earthly, these passions of the earth, 
They perish where they had their birth ; 

But love is indestructible, 
Its holy flame forever burneth ; 
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth." 

Perhaps Southey read this precious passage 
of God's word as the inspiration for these beau- 
tiful lines. 

III. The love of God to us is also perfectly 

MANIFESTED IN THAT HE PLACES US IN THE SAME 
POSITION OF FAVOR AND LOVE WITH CHRIST. THIS 
PERFECTION OF God's LOVE WILL SWEETLY CON- 
STRAIN US TO LOVE ALL THOSE WHO OCCUPY THE 
SAME BLESSED POSITION WITH US. 

Chap. iv. 17 : " Herein, is love with us (E. Y.) 
made ]) effect, that we may have boldness in the 
day of judgment ; because as he is, so are we in 
this world" 

"Herein is our love" should be as Eevised 
8 



114 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

Version has it, " Herein is love with us." The 
love* goes beyond the cross, beyond the in- 
dwelling, and places us just where Jesus stands 
in God's favor. Christ not simply comes into 
our place, but he brings us into his own posi- 
tion. This fellowship of life with God has for 
its fruit a holy, humble confidence. Luther 
translates boldness into joyfulness. The state 
in which we are placed, if realized, is one which 
should produce joyful, assured confidence. No 
fear should disturb, no apprehension should 
agitate. All fear of future judgment from the 
holy God because of sin is especially excluded. 
The day of judgment, with its final decision, has 
for one thus identified with Christ no terrors. 
He is in Christ, and hence is not estranged from 
God by sin, and subject to his wrath. Through 
the love of God which has placed him in Christ's 
law-place he is exempt from everything that 
can chill the heart — joyful boldness fills his soul 
as that day comes on. 

The reason for this secure and exalted assur- 
ance is thus stated : " Because as he is, so are 
we in this world." The ground of confidence 
is not the believer's own worthiness, but the 
wondrous love of God, which places the believer 
in a position of oneness with Christ. Christ 
may, indeed, be in heaven and we on earth, yet 

* This is the love of G-od to us. So interprets Luther,. 
Calvin, Spener, Sander, Besser, Ewald, and others. 



"Let us Love One Another." 115 

we stand in the same relation to God as Christ 
himself. Belonging to Christ as a member of 
his body, we can no more be separated from 
God than Christ himself; in him we have be- 
come objects of the divine love and care. In 
Christ's relation to God we have the pledge of 
our own.* 

Our Saviour, in John xvii., enlarges upon this 
identity of position between himself and his 
people. There is the same separation from 
the world, " because they are not of the world, 
even as I am not of the world " (vs. 14) ; the 
same mission into the world, " as thou hast sent 
me into the world, even so have I also sent 
them into the world " (vs. 18) ; the same union, 
"that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art 
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
in us" (vs. 21) ; the same glory, "and the glory 
which thou gavest me, I have given them " (vs. 
22) ; the same love, " and hast loved them, as 
thou hast loved me " (vs. 23). How wonderful! 
God loves us as he loves Jesus. Lastly, too, 
we may mention that we will have the same 
eternal dwelling-place : " Father, I will that 
they whom thou hast given me be with 
me." 

Jesus wishes us to have everything that he 

* We are quite sure that this interpretation is more sat- 
isfactory than that the similarity is in the temptation 
(Rickli), or the sufferings (Grotius), or others. 



116 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

possesses: "My peace I give unto you," "that 
they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves" ; 
we are "joint heirs with Christ." 

"As he is, so are we." Marvelous words! 
We have the same legal standing and accept- 
ance as Christ ; by the communication of the 
life that was in him we are brought into the 
same relationship with him in God's family ; 
moreover, the same infinite inheritance comes 
to us that comes to him, because we are in 
him. 

What a vivid contrast between those who 
realize that God's love has placed them in this 
safe, perfect place, and those who do not, and 
hence have their hearts torn with fear. 

Chap. iv. 18 : "There is no fear in love ; but 
perfect love casteth out fear ; because fear hath 
torment. He that feareth is not made perfect 
in love." 

Every one who realizes his position with God, 
into which he has been brought by being iden- 
tified with Christ, has no fear to disturb his 
fellowship, for that perfect love casteth out 
fear. Eear hath torment. But no torment can 
rend the soul which has been lifted up in con- 
scious realization to the same position in the 
sunlight of God's favor that Christ occupies. 

Shall not all who occupy that place with 
Christ and in Christ love one another? The 
root of brotherly love is in God's love to us. 



"Let us Love One Another." 117 

Chap. iv. 19: "We love'- him,'{ because he 
first loved us." 

What is the ground of man's love to God? 
It is not in man's natural instincts, nor is it in 
nature's goodness, nor even in the glory and 
beauty of God's character, but it is, "Because 
he first loved us." His love to us came down 
only through the incarnation and death of 
Christ. See the ninth and tenth verses. Did 
we not see, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we 
ought also to love one another"? Anyway, 
"Because he first loved us" "we love him." 

Love to God, then, is essential in the Chris- 
tian heart. Upon this fact the apostle proceeds 
to argue : 

Chap. iv. 20 : " If a man say, I love God, 
and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he 
that loveth not his brother whom he hath 
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
seen?" 

It is easy to say, "I love God"; j^rofession 
must be tested by the unmistakable signs of 
love. The witness to the presence of God's 
love in our hearts is love to our brethren. One 
who claims to love God and yet hates his bro- 
ther has his claims proven to be lies. Hatred 

* aya-ajij.zy is indicative. (Liicke, DeWette, Besser, 
Myrburg, and others.) 

t"Him" should be omitted and the passage simply, 
"we love because — ." 



118 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

and love mutually exclude each other.* The 
brother can be seen, but God is invisible. Love 
to God is the primary, and love to Christian 
brethren the derivative, affection. Love to God 
causes love to his children. We may reason 
from one to the other. Love to God ensures 
love to the brethren; while love to the breth- 
ren is evidence of love to God. Love to God is 
invisible, but we can see the visible effects. A 
man's profession of love to God is a stupendous 
lie when there is no visible evidence of that 
love. If the visible brother is not loved, still 
more the invisible God is not loved. Such is 
the necessary connection between these two 
out-actings of the divine life as it flows in the 
channel of love. From one fountain the waters 
ever flow into these two streams : Love to God 
and love to the Christian brother. 

Not only is this logically true, but God has 
united the two by divine command, and what 
therefore God has joined together let no man 
put asunder. The love to God and love to 
the Christian brother are forever united in holy 
wedlock. 

Chap. iv. 21 : "And this commandment have 
we from him, That he who loveth God love 
hib brother also." 

The second is a command as much as the 

* "To hate is the positive expression for k not to love.'" 
— Huther. 



"Let us Love One Another." 119 

first: "If ye love me, keep my command- 
ments." If we clo not observe the command to 
love our brother, we cannot love him who gave 
the command. Thus in every way the apostle 
fortifies the injunction to love one another. 

The initial text, "Beloved, let us love one 
another," shines like a thread of gold through 
this string of pearls. Beginning with " For 
love is of God," it runs through every verse, 
till, with the injunction, "He who loveth God 
love his brother also," the splendid ascription 
is closed. May God's Spirit with a pen of light 
engrave these celestial sentences upon the lov- 
ing heart of the church ! " God is love." 

" 'Tis love, 'tis love, thou diedst for me, 
I hear thy whisper in iny heart; 
The morning breaks ; the shadows flee ; 

Pure universal love thou art. 
To me do all thy bowels move : 
Thy nature and thy name is love." 

"Every one that loveth is born of God." In 
the hearts of God's children we find : 

' ' Its flame forever burneth ; 
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth." 

" Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought 
to love one another." 



VII. 

£fye Cesttmony Concerning 
(Eternal -€ife, 

A STUDY IN 1 JOHN V. 

"This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal 
life, and this life is in his Son." — 1 John v. 11. 

THROUGH many beautiful sentences the 
apostle has been writing upon the uni- 
versal Christian consciousness those sweet 
words, " Beloved, let us love one another." He 
does this by revealing that "God is love," and 
hence those who love are "born of God and 
know God." This love of God had a twofold 
objective manifestation. The first manifesta- 
tion is in the incarnation : " God sent his only 
begotten Son into the world." The second 
part of the objective manifestation is Christ, 
" The propitiation for our sins." Again, God's 
love to us comes into us and makes there his 
dwelling-place, thus giving a subjective revela- 
tion of his love : " God dwelleth in us, and his 
love is perfected in us." "He that dwelleth in 
love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Again, 
the love of God places us in the same position 
of love and favor with Christ : " Because as he 
120 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 121 

is, so are we in this world." Hence the apostle 
says, "We love, because he first loved us." 
(E. V.) 

The apostle cannot at once leave this pre- 
cious theme, and hence only gradually does he 
glide into the subject of eternal life. He first 
touches two forms of the out-acting of the 
Christ-life. Its first flower is faith. Faith 
with John is not mere assent to historical facts 
or the mere acceptance of doctrines, but is an 
outgrowth of the life-germ implanted by God 
in the soul, and receiving God and Christ in all 
their revealed relations. Such faith enters 
at once into fellowship with the Father, and 
with his Son Jesus Christ. Hence faith is 
positive evidence that the one who believes is 
born of God. 

The apostle, therefore, in the first section of 
this verse, says, " Whosoever believeth that 
Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (Chap. v. 1.) 

The twin flower of the Christ-life is love : 

Chap. v. 1 : "And every one that loveth Mm 
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." 

If we love him that begat we are God's own 
children, for God is love, and we have thus 
shown that we have God's life in our hearts. 
Hence, loving God, we must love him that is 
born of God, in whom the same divine life 
exists. We cannot love the source of this 
divine life without loving all who share with us 



122 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

in this life. If we love the parent we shall love 
the children. 

And the reverse is true : 

Chap. v. 2: "By this we know that we love 
the children of Gnd, when we love God, and 
keep his commandments." 

If we love the children because of their in- 
herited life, we shall love the parent. Love to 
our Christian brethren is the best evidence of 
the love we have to God. Let us never forget 
this double exhibition of the truth contained in 
the first and second verses. 

Love can never be separated from obedience : 

Chap. v. 3 : li For this is the love of God, that 
we keep his commandments ; and his command- 
ments are not grievous T 

Loving God supremely, we are conscious of 
that affection. But consciousness is only a 
subjective test; the objective test is obedience 
to his commands. "For this is the love of 
God," i. e., the manifestation of love to him. 
The manifestation is that it is our aim* to 
keep his commands. 

Nor is this effort to keep his commandments 
a painful slavery: "And" (i. e., in executing 
this intention) "his commandments are not 
grievous." It is not a drudgery for the child 
that loves the Father to walk in the path of 



* tW, in order that. 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 123 

obedience ; rather will lie step along it with a 
light and gladsome heart. The life of God is 
in the believer's heart, and this gives the 
strength to keep his words. 

Power goes with the Christ-life : 

Chap. v. 4: "For whatsoever is bom of God 
over cometh the ivorld: and this is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our faith." 

The specific form of that life which overcomes 
the world is faith : " "Whatsoever is born of God 
overcometh the world," and the victory in one 
word is faith. "It is worthy of note that he 
does not say faith is that whereby we attain 
victory over the world ; nor faith is that which 
will overcome the world. He says faith is 
itself the victory which has overcome the 

world Faith is itself a victory already 

achieved over the world ; "" it has its being 
only as a victory attained in conflict with 

the world The whole subsequent 

Christian life, if it holds fast the faith in its 
quiet, healthy process of development, is no- 
thing else than a continuation of the victory 
over the world once attained by faith. As 
Christ, in the words already quoted, says not 
that he will, but he has overcome the world 
(John xvi. 33), and bids believers rejoice in 

*" Faith from the beginning overcame the world." 
(Huther.) v.y.ri<sa<sa is aorist. 



124 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

this assurance ; so faith, b j virtue of fellowship 
with Christ, shares in this his victory over the 
world. . . . We cannot, therefore, but be dis- 
trustful of all efforts to cure the evils of the 
world which do not rest upon this foundation; 
even though they may accomplish many single 
reforms, yet a radical cure of the disease is not 
to be effected by such means.' 

This victory is already gained, yet its fruit is 
still being gathered. 

Chap. v. 5 : " Who is he that overcometh the 
world, out he that oelieveth that Jesus is fie 
Bon of God?" 

""Who becomes superior to all the blandish- 
ments of the unholy, all the fury of the power- 
ful and the guile of the prophets of Satan, if 
not he who believes that the Eedeemer is the 
God-man?" t We see the earliest flower of 
spring which has pushed its way through the 
frost and cold, and now stands smiling with its 
fragrant head open to the sun, and we say: 
"Ton flower has overcome the winter." So 
where faith has made its way through the crust 
of the cold, frozen, opposing world, and lifts its 
head to God with a heart all fragrant with love 
to God and man, we say, "Faith has overcome 
the world, and now blooms with divine life de- 
spite the world's hostility." 

* Neander, in loco. 

f Demarest on the Catholic Epistles, in loco. 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 125 

The apostle now proceeds to what is the heart 
of the fifth chapter, the testimony concerning 
Jesus Christ. 

I. He first presents to us the witnesses 

THAT TESTIFY IN HIS BEHALF. 

Chap. y. 6 : " This is he that came by water 
and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water 
only, but by waiter and blood. And it is the 
Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit 
is truth' 1 

These are the three tokens by which Jesus 
Christ revealed himself. Neander,* with many 
others, insists that "the water" refers to the 
baptism of Christ; the baptism to which he 
submitted, " and at which the dignity of Jesus 
as the Son of God shone forth in the manner 
described by John in his Gospel. Since the 
blood has immediate reference to the person of 
Jesus, being the designation of his sufferings, 
the water must designate something which has 
personal reference to himself, viz. : his bap- 
tism. At the baptism of Jesus God set his seal 
to his official career, which then began." 

Others insist that the water here refers to the 
historical fact recorded in John xix. 34: "But 
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, 

* Calvin thinks there is reference to ceremonial washing 
and sacrifices; Grotius, that water teaches Christ's inno- 
cence; others refer water and blood to two sacraments, 
which 'we reject. 



126 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

and forthwith came there out blood and water." 
The importance of this fact they claim is indi- 
cated by the thirty-fifth verse: "And he that 
saw it bear record, and his record is true : and 
he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might 
believe." Water, say they, is symbolic of the 
life which could flow from the Saviour only 
after his side was torn by the spear. 

Both are plausible. Neander makes out a 
very strong argument. 

"The blood" is used in reference to the sac- 
rifice of himself. Here was the propitiation for 
our sins. His streaming blood pointed out the 
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the 
world. The way to the most holy place was 
opened once for all by the blood of Jesus Christ. 
This was an essential witness to the work and 
character of the Messiah. 

"The Spirit," too, beareth witness. The 
Spirit cannot but bear witness of Jesus, because 
" the Spirit is truth." This testimony was borne 
when in the form of a dove he descended upon 
Christ at Jordan, and when at Pentecost he de- 
scended to confirm the preaching of the apos- 
tles about the crucified and risen Saviour. His 
testimony, too, has continued all through this 
dispensation and still abides. Christ spoke 
concerning the Spirit's testimony: "He shall 
bring all things to your remembrance, whatso- 
ever I have said unto you." (John xiv. 26.) 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 127 

" He shall testify of me." (John xv. 26.) " He 
shall reprove the world of sin, and of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment." (John xvi. 8-11.) "He 
will guide you into all truth." (John xvi. 13.) 
"He shall glorify me." (John xvi. 14.) 

Chap. v. 7. It is useless to speak concerning 
this verse, save to say every available historical 
evidence proves it an interpolation. The verse 
is not in any ancient Greek manuscript, nor in 
any ancient version, nor in the ancient Greek 
Fathers. 

The apostle now condenses his statement : 

Chap. v. 8 : "And there are three who hear 
witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the Mood: 
and the three agree in one." (R. V.) 

These three utter the same testimony and 
agree throughout. Neander gives a beautiful 
term to the Greek by his translation : "And the 
three have reference to the one." They all 
speak of Jesus Christ, in whom is the fountain 
of life. 

II. The apostle now speaks of the recep- 
tion OF THE TESTIMONY. 

Testimony is valuable as evidence. It brings 
responsibility which cannot be avoided. It 
must be met : 

Chap. v. 9 : "If we receive the witness of men f 
the witness of God is greater ; for this is the 
witness of God which he hath testified of his 
Sonr 



128 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

All human testimony is liable to err, and yet 
"we accept it and act upon it. If, then, we re- 
ceive anything upon the testimony of men, how 
Can we refuse to accept the infallible witness of 
God ? We are responsible in view of this wit- 
ness of God which is greater. And, indeed, the 
witness which God has given is that concerning 
his Son, Jesus Christ. God has uttered his 
testimony. What will men do with it? 

The apostle now points out the blessed re- 
sults of receiving this testimony, and also the 
fearful consequences of rejecting it: 

Chap. v. 10 : "He that helieveth on the Son of 
God, hath the witness in himself; he that he- 
lieveth not God hath made him a liar J because 
he helieveth not the record that God gave of his 
Son." 

The one who receives the outward testimony 
of the Spirit has something conferred even more 
intimate : he " hath the witness in himself." 
The Spirit witnesseth with our spirit that we 
are the sons of God. The testimony becomes a 
part of our inner life,* and now abides with us, 
a living factor in a spiritual consciousness. 
How sweet such assurance as a living element 
in our souls. 

But the one who rejects this testimony of 
God concerning Jesus incurs fearful guilt : 
" He that believeth not God hath made him a 

♦"The external has become internal to him." — Huther. 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 129 

liar." " He practically," says Neander, " de- 
clares those divine facts which testify of the 
Son of God to be false witnesses, and, in effect, 
makes God a liar." Unbelief stamps God's tes- 
timony as false, and rules the all-truthful One, 
who cannot lie, out of court. What a fearful 
position to occupy, ever casting the lie in God's 
holy face. 
III. The testimony is now stated. This 

RECORD IS TWOFOLD. 

The first position is, that God hath given us 
eternal life. God gave us eternal life : " God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life"; "the 
gift of God is eternal life " ; " thanks be unto 
God for his unspeakable gift." It is all a gift, 
and the boon is no less than eternal. 

The second part of the testimony indicates 
where this eternal life is located: "And this 
life is in his Son"; in him as the only inex- 
haustible source, fountain, and purchasing 
cause. " In him was life." Christ is our life. 
That life is in God in inexhaustible fulness, an 
infinite ocean rolling out from his great heart ; 
it flows to us from Christ alone ; it comes from 
him a life of grace in present possession and a 
life of glory in assured expectation.* Hence 

* Vita gratia in re, et vita glorim in spe. — Tirinus. 
9 



130 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Froniann says : "The eternal life, of which the 
Christian is by faith a partaker, is one witk 
the life that dwells in Christ." 

In giving Christ " God has bestowed on us 
the fountain of this eternal life," and hence the 
twofold form of the testimony : 

Chap. v. 11: "And this is the record, that 
God hath given us eternal life, and this life is 
in his Son." 

Then there comes the natural consequence in 
beautiful statement : 

Chap. v. 12: "He that hath the Son hath 
life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath 
not lifer 

Hence every one who has accepted the Son 
and has him dwelling in the heart, has life ; in 
the Son is grounded this eternal life. Every 
one who has not the Son of God in his heart 
has not the life of God, for all pretence of life 
apart from fellowship with him is but death. 
Unbelief in shutting out Christ shuts out the 
fountain of life and dwells in death. 

IY. The believer may possess the assurance 

THAT THIS ETERNAL LIFE IS HIS. EVERY CHILD 
OF GOD DOES NOT HAVE THIS ASSURANCE ; YET IT 
IS HIS PRIVILEGE TO HAVE THIS KNOWLEDGE, AND 
WITH IT TO SWEETEN THE CUP OF LIFE. 

The apostle states the object of his writing: 
Chap. v. 13 : " These things have I written 
unto you that believe on the name of the Son 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 131 

of God ; that ye may know that ye have eternal 
life, and that ye may believe on the name of the 
Son of God."* 

The apostle would have them listen to the 
witnesses, consider the divine record itself, look 
into the divine life-fountain until faith should 
strengthen into assurance, and saying " 1 know" ; 
their eyes should feast themselves on the pearly 
gate standing open and the stream of life flow- 
ing from the throne of God. The goal of faith 
is knowledge of the life we now possess in 
Christ. It is not a coming possession or a pro- 
mised gift, but in actual holding : " That ye 
have eternal life." They should settle it in 
their hearts that no power on earth nor in the 
regions of Satan can take away that gift. Says 
Huther : "The certainty of the life which is be- 
stowed on him is so much the more necessary 
to the Christian's mind, as this is sometimes 
hidden from him in the struggles of life ; the 
life is, then, but at times like a hidden trea- 
sure." 

The Christian should look beyond the strug- 
gles, for they in no way imperil the treasure. 
God says : "Your life is hid with Christ in God." 
How secure, " with Christ " in the infinite God. 
It is not in Christ's keeping solely ; it is in God. 

*We cannot agree with Rickli, Liicke, Braune, and 
others, who make this simply a concluding section; for 
the previous thought is continuously developed. 



132 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

God must die before the life that comes from 
him to us can be cut off. Amid all the battle 
we may strengthen our hearts, for "when 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
ye also appear with him in glory." How deep 
lies the reason for our safety! It is Christ 
who is our life ; our life is above all the muta- 
tions of time, and we are just as safe as Jesus is. 

The apostle mentions a blessed fruit of the 
relation into which they have entered through 
faith : 

Chap. v. 14, 15 : " And this is the confidence 
we have in him, . that, if we ask anything ac- 
cording to his will, he heareth us : and if we 
krww that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we 
know that we have the petitions that we desired 
of him." 

God is no longer a God afar off when that 
life is ours. The chasm which separated the 
creature from the Creator is filled ; and occupy- 
ing a filial relation to him, they enjoy continued 
fellowship. In him there is help, counsel, and 
comfort. This confidence or boldness which 
thence arises leads us to prayer. The confi- 
dence is in God, and takes the particular form, 
" that, if we ask anything according to his will, 
he heareth us." Asking according to his will 
an sessential condition to prayer, and is only 
possible because of the Christ-life within. With 
his life within us in full power, and the Spirit 



TEbTiMONY Concerning Eternal Life. 133 

guiding, we ask only what God wishes. Then, 
indeed, he gladly heareth us. 

Neander says: "Prayer is the soul's neces- 
sity breathed forth to God with filial confidence 
and submission in the consciousness of that 
living relation to him as Father." He adds 
also : " True prayer cannot, in the proper sense, 
constrain the will of God — a thought which is 
excluded by the very nature of this filial rela- 
tion to him ; .... as an invisible spiritual 
force it penetrates with its agency to the very 
heart of the invisible universe. Itself the breath 
of love, its workings are in unison with the laws 
of the invisible kingdom of love. It belongs 
not to that which can be mechanically esti- 
mated, like all that is highest, and deepest, and 
innermost. Prayer is the highest act of the 

God-related spirit So certainly will 

prayer be heard that Christians, while they 
pray, should be inspired with the assurance that 
what they ask is virtually received already."* 
Hence the double assurance : " If we know that 
he hear us," " we know that we have the peti- 
tion that we desired of him." 

Having introduced the assurance enjoyed by 
the believer in prayer, the apostle passes to one 
especial subject of prayer : 

Chap. v. 16: "If any man see his brother sin 
a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and 

* "He has Gk>d, and in him all things." — Huther. 



1S4 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Tie shall give him life for them that sin not 
unto death. There is a sin unto death : I do 
not say that he shall pray for it." 

Prayer is the out-going of the Christ-life. In 
the woof of prayer is mingled faith and love. 
Hence, when the Christian brother sins, prayer 
in love for him goes out and would reinstate 
him at God's throne. Relief from sin is our 
brother's greatest need ; our prayer for him will 
express itself with reference to that need. How 
much more in unison with the Christ-life is 
prayer for the erring brother than hostile criti- 
cism. Feeling our brother's need and realizing 
our own weakness, we are lenient in our judg- 
ment, and take his case to a loving, forgiving 
Father. 

Such prayer does, and should, go forth for all 
Christian .brethren, except for one who has com- 
mitted "sin unto death." What, then, is the 
sin unto death? Huther's explanation is, per- 
haps, as good as any: "If any man see his 
brother sin in such a way that the sin which he 
commits does not involve absolute renunciation 
of Christ, and therefore does not necessarily 
bring condemnation with it, he shall pray for 
him." Of course, according to this, the sin 
unto death involves "absolute renunciation of 
Christ," and " necessarily brings condemnation 
with it."* It also indicates that no Christ-life 

*Deinarest instances Hymenaeus, Philetus, and Alex- 
nder, and Julian the Apostate. 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 135 

has ever existed in the heart guilty of it ; for no 
such sin could co-exist with that life.* 

Having said so much, the apostle would guard 
against " effacing the essential contrariety be- 
tween the Christian life and sin." 

Chap. v. 17: "All unrighteousness is sin; 
and there is a sin not unto death." 

Transgression, though committed by the be- 
liever, can be no small matter ; it is still sin, 
and that is enough to make the one who pos- 
sesses the Christ-life avoid it. The poison of 
sin must be avoided, whether presented in small 
or larger portions. " The principle in all sin is 
the same." t 

The divine life is in hostility to all sin : 

Chap. v. 18 : " We know that whosoever is 
horn of God sinneth not; but he keepeth him- 
self \ and that wicked one toueheth him not" 

Some might think too lightly of sin, and hence 
he recalls the fact that the Christ-life stands in 
opposition to all sin, and that one who pos- 
sesses the divine life, because of being born of 
God, separates himself from sin. With care the 
child of God keeps himself from all the sins 
and iniquities in the world. How clear the duty 
to guard against all sin whatever, without look- 



* That the sin unto death is bodily death, as held by 
Linder, Lincoln, Darby, and Kelly, we utterly reject. 
Neander's view, that there is a gradual extinction of the 
Christ-life, is dangerous. t Neander. 



136 Studies in the Epistles op John. 

ing at " gradational differences"; and, too, how 
clear the fact that those who have committed 
sins unto death have not been born of God. 
Those who are born of God "the wicked one 
toucheth not." He cannot reach to the seat of 
the heavenly life. Says Huther of the Chris- 
tian : " Being in his most inner nature redeemed 
from the fellowship of sin, he suffers from those 
temptations no injury to the life which has 
come from God." * 

How strong the contrast between believers 
and the world : 

Chap. v. 19 : " We know that we are of God, 
and the whole world lieth in wickedness" 

See how the assurance deepens. The apos- 
tle can scare write a sentence without "we 
know." " We know" introduces the eighteenth, 
nineteenth, and twentieth verses. All the great 
experimental relations of the children of God 
have become living realities, and out of them 
gush refreshing waters to satisfy the wants felt 
by his own. 

In this case the assurance is that " we are of 
God." This phrase is defined by the previous 
verse, "born of God." God is the source of 
our life and the author of our Christian be- 
ing. 

But the world, what of it? It "lieth in the 
wicked one." This word Trovrjpw is not neuter 

*Tn loco. 



Testimony Concekning Eteenal Life. 137 

as many* suppose, but masculine, "the wicked 
one." We are taught that the world is passive t 
in the hands of Satan, and permanently :[ under 
his dominion. The expression "lieth in" is ex- 
pressed by a writer thus : " Warmed by his hell- 
ish heat; as we receive our life from God, so 
the wicked receive diabolical impetus from the 
wicked one."§ "As a sleeping child in the 
arms of a murderer, so are all the unrenewed 
in the power and control of Satan." II 
We come to another "we know" : 
Chap. v. 20: "And we know that the Son of 
God is come, and hath given us an understand- 
ing, that we may know him that is true ; and 
we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus 
Christ. This is the true God, and eternal 
lifer 

Despite the fact that the world lies in sin, we 
have the sweet knowledge that the Son of God 
is come, and has even done so much as to 
touch with heavenly enlightenment our under- 
standing^ that we might "know him that is 
true." Only through the Son comes that know- 
ledge of the true One, for all spiritual know- 
ledge is grounded in community of life. Christ 

♦Rickli. Erdmann, and Episcopius. f Braune. 

\ Liicke. § Lincoln. || Demarest. 

f diavota is not knowledge, as Liicke and De Wette hold, 
but the faculty of knowing quickened into activity. See 
Ebrard, Diistendelck and Huther. 



138 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

brings us that life and engrafts us upon the root 
whence all life and power flows. The Son must 
lead us to the true God, and endow us with that 
keen sense of the spiritual life whereby the true 
God is known. 

But this knowledge goes even further : we 
know the true One ; but more, we know that " we 
are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus 
Christ." What divine knowledge! May our 
minds and hearts ever be filled with its hea- 
venly light ! "What an holy sphere in which to 
live, in him that is true ; but how exalted the 
privilege to know in deepest assurance that we 
are in that home of the soul. The apostle arises 
on the wings of assurance to the heavenhes 
themselves. 

But those disciples were in a world of idol- 
worship. He desires them to keep themselves 
pure from all contamination with idols. First, 
he reveals the true God. "This," that is, "him 
that is true, even his Son Jesus Christ," "is the 
true God." He is the God to be worshipped; 
the eternal and infinite One; yea, and he is 
"eternal life." "In him was life," and hence 
he is said to be "eternal life." Life is, by fig- 
ure, put for the author or procuring cause of 
life. Thus this beautiful epistle draws to a close, 
assuring us of the eternal life which its opening 
verses told us had been "manifested." 

Thence naturally springs a final and affec- 
tionate warning: 



Testimony Concerning Eternal Life. 139 

Chap. v. 21: "Little children, keep yourselves 
from idols. Amen" 

"Little children" is the same deep word 
pointing to birth -relationship, and recalls their 
minds to the fact that they are of cele iial 
lineage : "Born of God." Being his children, 
"keep yourselves from all idols." You are 
God's children, and hence would degrade your- 
selves in visiting idol shrines or drinking wine 
in their temples. We of to-day should realize 
our high birth and abstain from every form of 
sin. The most gilded sin degrades thje child 
of God. 



Yin. 

(X Stuby in tfye Seconb (Epistle 
of 3ofyru 

" The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom 
I love in the truth. — 2 John 1. 

THIS little epistle, written in such con- 
densed, charming style, is evidently the 
fruit of John's pen. There is almost every in- 
ternal evidence that could be desired, that here 
the divine John unfolds to us the thoughts of 
God. The contents of the epistle are evidently 
the product of inspiration, and come from the 
pure fountain of truth in God's mind, and yet 
have received the beautiful coloring which was 
given to everything which passed through 
John's loving heart and heavenly spirit. The 
salutation is not a prayer, as with Paul in his 
personal epistles, but a loving prediction: 
"There shall be with you grace, mercy, and 
peace." "The Son of the Father" is an origi- 
nal expression wholly in the style of John. 
" In truth and love " is an infallible indication 
of John's turn of thought. So may other 
touches of his exquisite thought be traced in 
this short chapter of only thirteen verses. 
140 



Study in Second Epistle of John. 141 

I. The apostle takes his pen to cheer a 
mother's heart, and to give joy to the chil- 
dren at home with her. 

Yerse 1 : "The elder unto the elect lady 
and her children, whom, I love in the truth; 
and not I only, out also all they that have, 
known the truth." 

" The elder " may have, in addition to 
the office described, the touch of the original 
designation of age. Yet the official meaning 
must not be overlooked. John was the only 
ruler now living who was appointed immediately 
by Christ himself, and hence the contents of the 
letter would carry special force as it went on 
its mission to gladden a mother's heart. The 
office of elder was the permanent ruling office 
in the church, and the apostles always seemed 
pleased to designate themselves by that term. 

The teaching of Ebrard that ti pea flute poi; can- 
not have been a title of the apostles is far from 
being correct, for often they assumed to par- 
ticular churches such a position as would make 
this name eminently suitable to them. 

"Unto the elect lady and her children." 
Three opinions have contended for supremacy 
in regard to the phrase, "elect lady." Many 
have contended that xupia is a symbolic de- 
scription of the Christian church.* Kupca, how- 
ever, is not used as equivalent to ecclesia. 

♦Jerome, Calovius, Whiston, Michaelis, Augustin, Hof- 
man. 



142 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Besides, the symbolic style is not kept up, and 
must break down amid the realistic setting of 
the chapter with its personal references. An- 
other opinion is, that ixAexrij xupia are two ap- 
pellatives describing a particular person without 
giving her proper name.* This opinion is voiced 
in the English version, "elect lady." To ad- 
dress a Christian woman and describe her by 
two appellatives, without giving her name, seems 
strange and unnatural. The third opinion 
seems much the most probable of all. It makes 
extexTYj xupta a proper name.t In the thirteenth 
verse, then, we would have a play upon the 
meaning of eclecte 

" Whom I love in the truth." The sphere of 
/Christian love is the truth. All the Christian 
affection lies within that holy bound, and may 
not be found beyond its confines. The apostle 
was not the only one who felt the glow of this 
holy emotion, "not I only"; there were others, 
"also all they that have known the truth." 
The knowledge of the truth becomes the princi- 
ple of affinity which binds together all Chris- 
tian hearts by golden bands ^ nor is this just 
any truth, but is the "divine truth of which the 
believer becomes a partaker in Christ." 

The basis of Christian love is further stated : 



* Grotius, Wetstein, Cappellus, Lorinnus and a Lapide. 
t Bengel and Krigel. 



Study in Second Epistle of John. 143 

Verse 2 : " For the truth's sake, which dwell- 
eth in us, and shall he with us forever." 

The perception of Christian truth in the 
hearts and lives of our fellow-disciples is the 
ground of love for them. We love them be- 
cause they are of the truth, and because the 
truth abides in them as a permanent cause of 
holy actions. The fruits of truth adorn their 
lives, and hence we love them. We may love 
people because beautiful in person, graceful in 
manner, refined in feeling, and rich in thought, 
but this is not Christian love. This Christ-like 
emotion emerges when we observe a life touched 
and made radiant with truth. 

Truth dwelleth in the Christian. This word 
expresses firm, sure existence and permanence. 
But the apostle would be more emphatic, and 
hence adds, " And shall be with us forever." 
How safe is the Christian, with the truth of 
Christ making his heart its dwelling-place, and 
never departing, but abiding, while the cease- 
less ages roll. Verily the believer " hath ever- 
lasting life," and while that life lives the Chris- 
tian cannot die. 

Verse 3 : " Grace oe with you, mercy and 
peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth 
and love." 

This sentence is predictive.* Grace, mercy 

* Liicke, De Wette, Ebrard, Braune, and Demarest. 



144 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

and peace " shall be." " Grace" is God's favor 
shown to the unworthy; " mercy" is favor 
shown to the miserable; and "peace" is the 
sweet and blessed result flowing from grace and 
mercy. The infinite ocean from which these 
blessings flow is God's heart and nature, and 
they come to us through Jesus Christ, who 
opened up a channel along which they could 
flow down to us. John, in accordance with his 
deep style of thought, lays stress on the son- 
ship of Christ. Because of that sonship Christ 
is, equally with the Father, the source of the 
blessing. "In truth and love " gives us the two 
vital elements of the Christian existence. This 
phrase, which is peculiar to John, brings back 
the two great features of the first epistle, "Light 
and Love." It indicates the sum of the con- 
tents of the whole epistle. What a divine sum- 
mary — Truth and Love! 

Yeese 4 : " 1 rejoiced greatly that I found of 
thy children walking in truth, as we have re- 
ceived a co'rnmandment from the Father." 

We have here the occasion of this exquisite 
epistle. The divine John takes a God -inspired 
pen to gladden an anxious mother's heart. He 
does this in his happiest style by expressing his 
own joy that he had found those of her chil- 
dren whom he had met away from their home 
living Christian lives. These boys — for the 
original indicates that they were boys — were 



Study in Second Epistle of John. 145 

"walking in truth." What a beautiful sphere 
for a young, manly life ! " Walking in truth " 
refers to the whole life — thinking, feeling, speak- 
ing, and acting. At Ephesus or some other 
great centre, where all was corruption, he found 
these young men leading lives whose life-ele- 
ment was the truth. What a heavenly picture on 
the dark background of those degenerate times! 

II. Christian hospitality and its limits. 

Verse 5 : "And now 1 beseech thee, lady, 
not as though I vjrote a new commandment 
unto thee, but that which vie had from the be- 
ginning, that we love one another." 

Here we have an exhortation to unfeigned 
Christian love. The command takes the form 
of a tender entreaty. Nor is it any new truth 
introduced, " not as though I wrote a new com- 
mandment unto thee," but it is the same sweet 
command and message which came with Christ 
from the very beginning. That command itself 
reveals the heavenly origin of Christianity. It 
sounds in our jarring world like a peal of golden 
bells, "That we love one another." 

Love is more than mere emotion or sentiment : 

Yerse 6: " And this is love, that toe walk 
after his commandments. This is the com- 
mandment, That, as ye have heard, from the 
beginning, ye should walk in it."* 

* h aurrj does not refer to evtoXt) (Sander), but to dyany 
(Liicke, Ebrard, and Braune). 
10 



146 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

" This is love," the manifestation or effect of 
love. The same condensed form of expression 
is found in 1 John v. 3 : " For this is the love 
of God, that we keep his commandments." We 
l/ manifest our love to him when we aim to live 
as he requires. His commandments are sum- 
marily comprehended in faith and love. These 
commandments are but twin effects of the 
Christian life, and always bloom together in 
that life. Hence the apostle adds, " This is the 
commandment." The great gospel precept re- 
quires the perpetual union of faith and love. 
There is no divorce for the holy and eternal 
wedlock of faith and love. We are to " walk in 
it," in love.* 

A warning is needed, lest Christian love be- 
tween Cyria and the apostle should be dis- 
turbed by the false teachers, and also lest, from 
over-confidence in those claiming to be Chris- 
tian teachers, she should assist in the spread of 
error : 

Verse 7 : " For many deceivers are entered 
into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ 
is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an 
antichrist." 

The false teachers are described. Many de- 
ceivers went forth, and have publicly appeared as 
teachers. These " confess not that Jesus Christ 
is come in the flesh." The present participle, 

* Liicke, Ebrard, Braune, and De Wette. 



Study in Second Epistle of John. 147 

" Jesus Christ coaxing in the flesh," expresses 
the idea in itself apart from all conception of 
time. Such a false doctrine was the very 
essence of the anti- Christian position. The in- 
carnation, in truth and reality, is a fundamental 
Christian doctrine, and may not be denied with- 
out destruction to the entire gospel system. 

A warning is, therefore, necessary : 

Verse 8 : " Look to yourselves, that we lose 
not those things which we have wrought, out 
that we receive a full reward" 

The apostle says to Cyria, " Be vigilant, be 
on the outlook for danger, or take heed to your- 
selves. There is danger that, through the in- 
fluence of these deceivers, we shall lose what 
we have labored for or what we have gained. 
Let us apostles, Cyria and her children, be 
cautious against them, that we obtain a com- 
plete recompense." Here is an elegant transi- 
tion from the second to the first person, that 
the apostle may be included with Cyria as 
in danger of loss and desirous of a full re- 
ward. 

The importance of the truth in regard to 
Christ is now deeply impressed upon those 
whom the apostle is addressing : 

Verse 9 : " Whosoever transgresseth, and 
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not 
God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christy 
lie hath both the Father and the Son" 



148 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

Every one that passeth by or advances beyond* 
the true doctrine of Christ hath not God. Then 
as now, false teachers pretended to have ad- 
vanced to a higher degree of knowledge. Such 
a teacher, having advanced beyond the true 
doctrine, hath not God. To have God we must 
abide in the true doctrine of Christ and his in- 
carnation. The doctrine of Christ is the truth; 
he who has not the truth cannot have God, for 
in the last analysis the truth is the living God 
himself. Having the truth, we have reached 
not simply Christ the Son, but, through him, 
the Father. In such emphatic terms does the 
apostle condemn the self-styled advanced think- 
ers of his day. 

The climax of the period is reached in the 
tenth verse : 

Vekse 10: "If there come any unto you, and 
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into 
your house, neither bid him God speed." 

Christian hospitality has the same limit as 
v Christian love. It does not bind us in weak 
sentimentality to receive and aid all who come, 
but only those who bear the truth. The true 
doctrine of Christ is the test. We are not bound 
to receive those who are teaching fundamental 
error ; nay, we must not receive them into the 
house, we must not entertain them. The Bible 
goes so far as to say that in this capacity we 

* Huther. 



Study in Second Epistle of John. 119 

must not wish him well ; we must not say, "Joy 
to him."* When such an emissary from the 
father of lies knocks at your door, do not en- 
tertain him or welcome him in his assumed 
character as a minister of Christ. 

The reason for this good common-sense in- 
junction is not far to find : 

Verse 11 : "For he that hiddeth him God 
speed is partaker of his evil deeds." 

By extending such welcome to the false 
teacher, our influence is lent to the spread of 
his errors, and we become responsible for the 
evil consequences. If we aid the one who scat- i/ 
ters seeds of death, we are guilty ; if we wel- 
come the one who sows in the hearts of men 
the germs of fatal error, we are indirectly de- 
stroying souls. We are partakers of his evil 
deeds. Thus the apostle would guard Cyria and 
her hospitable home against errorists. Let the 
sword of truth keep the doors to our homes 
and test those who sit at our boards. 

An apology is due Cyria for the brevity of 
the letter : 

Verse 12: " Having many things to write 
unto you, I would not write with paper \ and 
ink; hut I trust to come unto you, and speak 
face to face, that our joy may he full." 

* Hofman. 

f " Is the Egyptian paper, and. probably the finer Au- 
gustan sort which served for letters." — De Wette. 



150 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

So brief a letter might look indifferent, but 
his excuse is, that he had so many things to say 
that pen and j>aper would not serve, and he 
trusted soon to come, and in the plainest and 
most familiar manner and without reserve, as 
becomes the disciples of Christ, speak mouth to 
mouth about the affairs of Christ's kingdom. 
Then, indeed, would their joy be fulfilled, or 
filled full. The divine heart of John, and the 
chosen heart of Cyria, would both overflow in 
mutual love and joy. Beautiful picture ! Happy 
home ! 

Cyria had a married sister living at the place 
whence this letter was written : 

Verse 13: "TJie children of thy elect sister 
greet thee. Amen" 

The children of this sister, whom John calls 
elect as a play upon Cyria's first name, Electe, 
send greetings and Christian salutation through 
the apostle's -pen. Thrice happy kinspeople to 
ha^e an inspired pen to bear this human love 
from one to the other. How human and ten- 
der inspiration becomes, thus to weave this 
beautiful letter out of the warp and woof of a 
mother's love and Christian hospitality. God 
is not too great to touch and transfigure our 
earthly affections and homes. 



IX. 

€f?e Ctyrb (Epistle of 3of?rL 

4 STUDY IN 3 JOHN 1-U. 
"The elder unto the well beloved Gams." — 3 John 1. 

THIS beautiful epistle of commendation 
and warning was probably written from 
Ephesus. The words of praise spoken about 
John's well beloved friend are of the highest 
order. The words of reproof and warning con- 
cerning Diotrephes are of the most manly 
character. The whole is saturated with in- 
spired power and is forever lifted above the 
plane of human composition. 

Verse 1 : " The elder unto the well beloved 
Gains, whom I love in the truth" 

The superscription begins as in the Second 
Epistle. "The elder" refers to John the apos- 
tle. There may be a double reference to the 
office and age, and yet none can suppose that 
the prime consideration in the use of the word 
in this case is not the office, the eldership. 
Ebrard thinks there were two Johns living in 
Ephesus, and that the non-apostolic John was 
among his intimate circle of friends called " The 
Presbyter," to distinguish him from the apostle. 
But in that case, as Liicke has shown, "the 
151 



152 Studies e\ t the Epistles of John. 

elder" would not have been suitable for the 
Presbyter John without the addition of his 
proper name. But the apostle was not' simply 
an apostle ; he also bore the relation of an 
elder to the churches, and hence, as being "the 
elder" by eminence, might well be designated 
by that term. 

"Unto the well beloved Gaius." Who is 
Gaius ? There are various opinions : some 
holding that it was the Macedonian Gaius 
(Acts xix. 29) ; others, that he is the Gaius of 
Derbe- (Acts xx. 4); while others maintain 
that he was the Gaius of Corinth t (Rom. xvi. 
23 and 1 Cor. i. 14). All that is certain, how- 
ever, is that Gaius was a distinguished charac- 
ter among the Christians, and a firm friend and 
supporter of the apostle. 

Whosoever Gaius may be, John called him 
"well beloved." He also speaks thus of him: 
"Whom I love in the truth." And here the 
"I" is emphatic, whom 1 love, whatever may 
be said of Diotrephes and that class. Notice, 
that the sphere cf Christian love is the truth. 
This phrase, "in the truth," expresses more 
than mere sincerity. The basis and sphere of 
all Christian affection is evangelical truth. 
Whenever we meet one who has that truth in 
the heart and in the life we are bound to love 
him as we would love Christ. 

* Liicke. t Wolf. 



The Third Epistle of John. 153 

Verse 2: " Beloved, I wish above all things 
that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even 
as thy soul prosper eth." 

How tender the apostle's heart ! The second 
verse begins, "Beloved." The prayer of the 
loving heart is then stated. It is that in all 
respects * his temporal prosperity and bodily 
health may keep pace with the prosperity and 
health of his soul. What a beautiful commen- 
dation! How Gaius's soul must have been 
flourishing; a garden of God, in which all the 
flowers of grace and fruits of holiness delighted 
the apostle. Gaius may have been, like the 
lovely Timothy, dwelling in a feeble body. 
John prays that his body may be as robust as 
his soul. 

Yerse3: "For I rejoiced greatly, when the 
brethren came and, testified of the truth that is 
in thee, even as thou walhest in the truth." 

The apostle's heart was gladdened by the 
brethren who testified of the truth that was in 
Gaius; nor does truth here refer to mere sin- 
cerity, t or liberality, % but goes far deeper, to 
"the inner Christian life, which is born of the 
truth, is itself truth." § The brethren testified 

* In all things (Demarest) ; not above all things (Winer). 
The usage does not disprove Liicke's interpretation. 
t Demarest. 

X Lorinas limits to Uberalitas, which is incorrect. 
§ Huther. 



154 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

that Gaius was walking in the truth, which was 
sufficient witness to the truth that was in him. 

Thou is emphatic to mark that in the midst 
of the wavering policy pursued by Diotrephes, 
one at least, his beloved friend, stood for the 
truth, strong in the strength which the truth 
supplies. 

Verse 4: " I have no greater joy than to hear 
that my children walk in truth." 

Joy is put for the incidental cause or oc- 
casion for it.* The natural father rejoices in 
the success of his children; the spiritual Fa- 
ther finds higher joy in the spiritual health of 
his spiritual children. Paul lays stress upon 
the relationship : " For though ye have ten 
thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not 
many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have be- 
gotten you through the gospel." (1 Cor. iv. 15.) 
Again, he speaks of Philemon : "I beseech thee 
for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten 
in my bonds." (Philemon, vs. 10.) John felt a 
thrill in his heart at the word that Gaius was 
walking in the truth, which had been the seed 
of life in his heart and planted there by the 
apostle himself. 

Verses 5, 6: "Beloved, thou doest faithfully 
whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to 
strangers ; which have home witness of thy 
charity before the church : whom if thou bring 

* Demarest. 



The Third Epistle of John. 155 

forvmrd on their journey after a godly sort, 
thou shalt do well" 

The apostle commends Gains for well doing, 
especially for assisting the missionaries who 
went to preach Christ. These brethren and 
strangers whom Gaius aided testified of his 
Christian walk before the church at Ephesus. * 
Eull of joy, the apostle writes to express his ap- 
probation, and also to nrge him, as the mis- 
sionaries are going to return to their field, to 
receive and aid them again. "Bring forward 
on their journey," is not simply to accompany 
a distance for the sake of honor, but to aid in 
the journey, which was for the spread of the 
gospel. 

Verse 7 : " Because that for his name's sake 
they went forth, taking nothing of the Gen- 
tiles." 

Literally, "for his name's sake" is "in behalf 
of the name." The name is put for the person, 
the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is 
not here to be referred to God. They went 
forth for the sake of promoting his glory, and 
from supreme love to him. This was the deep 
impelling motive which sent these brethren 
forth, "taking nothing of the Gentiles" for 
their support. Such consecration, such love 

* ' ' We are not to think of the church to which Gaius 
belonged, but of that in which John was sojourning." — 
Huther. 



156 Studies in the Epistles of John. 

to Christ, and generosity to the souls of men, 
demands corresponding love and liberality 
from other Christians, who should support 
these missionaries while engaged in this holy 
self-sacrificing work. Thus deeply and beauti- 
fully does the apostle lay the foundation of the 
duty of the church to support the ministry. It 
is for the sake of the name. 

Verse 8 : " We therefore ought to receive such, 
that toe might he fellow -help>ers to the truth." 

"We" is emphatic; we who live where the 
gospel has been preached, churches planted, 
and where Christianity has carried its blessings. 
"Therefore" takes us back to "for the sake of 
the name." We aid not men when we give to 
the gospel, but we give to the most glorious 
name in the universe. Another motive is now 
touched. Whoever helps the missionary helps 
the truth, because a worker for the truth, and 
aids the night of the angel that bears the gos- 
pel trumpet. Every Christian by giving to 
Home and Foreign Missions becomes "fellow- 
helper to the truth." " 

Verse 9: "I ivrote unto the church: hut 
Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence 
among them, receiveth us not." 

* We prefer, " So that we may be helpers of the truth" 
(Luther, Grotius, Bengel and Braune) to "We may be 
their fellow-workers for the truth" (Huther, Bruckner, 
Ebrard and Braune). 



The Third Epistle of John. 157 

Diotrephes is pictured to us. The occasion 
which gave Diotrephes an opportunity to mani- 
fest his character was a letter written by the 
apostle to the church of which both he and 
Gaius were members, or rather of which Dio- 
trephes was probably presbyter, and Gaius a 
member. It is probable that the apostle wrote 
commending the certain missionaries, and urg- 
ing the church to help them in the interest 
of "the name." Diotrephes "loveth to be first 
among them." He desired, and, indeed, at- 
tempted, to lord it over the members of the 
church. He rejected the apostle's authority, 
and paid no attention to his admonitions. 

Yerse 10: " Wherefore, if I come, I will 
remember his deeds which he doeth, prating 
against us with malicious words : and not con- 
tent therewith, neither doth he himself receive 
the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, 
and casteth them out of the church." 

What a tremendous indictment. Its items 
are: "Who loveth to have the preeminence"; 
"prating against us with malicious words"; 
"doth not receive the brethren"; "forbiddeth 
them that would"; and "casteth them out of 
the church." Who could with bolder, more 
exact strokes of the pencil portray the ecclesi- 
astical tyrant. 

The writing sent to the above-mentioned 
church has been the subject of much contro- 
versy. Some have supposed that his writing 



158 Studies in the Epistles oe John. 

was what we know as the First Epistle of 
John ; * while others take it to be the Second 
Epistle of John.t Both are incorrect. It may 
have been lost, or may have been withheld 
from the church by Diotrephes. 

Many have conjectured what particular form 
DiotrepheS's malicious words in opposition to 
the apostle took. Bickersteth suggests that be- 
cause of the apostle's age he represented him 
as being in his dotage ; Liicke, that he per- 
verted 2 John, vs. 10, 11 ; while Barnes thinks 
that he claimed that the apostle was going be- 
yond his authority, and that his congregation 
was independent of apostolic control. 

Veese 11: "Beloved, follow not that which 
is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth 
good is of God ; but he that doeth evil hath not 
seen God." 

What a sweet transition from pointed rebuke 
to loving entreaty, "Beloved," the same ten- 
der word. How the heart of the apostle glows 
in it. Imitate not the evil ; avoid unholy ambi- 
tion and lack of liberality such as Diotrephes 
showed. How deep the motive: "He that 
doeth good" is of God, is a child of God by 
birth, one of God's rexvea. But one who does 
evil, so far from being a child of God, has 
not even seen God. The pure in heart and 
life, alone, shall see God. How deep the test 
* Wolf. t Ewald and Besser. 



The Third Epistle of John. 159 

goes. It reaches into the heart and deeds, and 
lays the inner nature bare. 

Verse 12: "Demetrius hath good report of 
all men, and of the truth itself : yea, and we 
also bear record; and ye know that our record 
is true." 

Of Demetrius nothing farther is known. He 
may have been the bearer of this letter. He is 
perhaps held up as a man the exact opposite of 
Diotrephes. What a noble picture ! all associ- 
ates bear testimony that he was loving, hum- 
ble, and liberal. The very truth itself by per- 
sonification appears as a witness in his behalf. 
Nay, too, the apostle puts his own inspired tes- 
timony forth. 

Verses 13, 14: " I had many things to write* 
but I will not with ink and pen write unto 
thee : but 1 trust I shall shortly see thee, and 
we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. 
Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by 
name." 

The apostle's heart is full, but pen and ink 
are too cold ; he hopes soon to see them face 
to face, and so be with his Gaius and speak 
heart to heart. Peace be to Gaius. Moreover,, 
the friends of John send salutations to Gaius. 
He sends greeting, too, to the friends who are 
with Gaius. 

♦Not "I had much to write" (Ebrard), but "I would 
have many things to write" (Huther). 



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